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In lieu of the Friday night “Trump bombshell” deliverable from the NYT-WaPo complex, today it was Reuters<\/a>‘ and the Wall Street Journal<\/a>‘s turn to lay out the suspenseful weekend reads, previewing major potential upcoming changes to the Trump administration.<\/p>\n First, according to Reuters<\/a>, Trump’s top advisors are preparing to establish a “war room” to combat negative reports and mounting questions about communication between Russia<\/strong>.\u00a0 Steve Bannon and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, both senior advisors to the president, will be involved in the new messaging effort, which also aims to push Trump’s policy agenda and schedule more rallies with supporters. This “most aggressive effort yet” to push back against allegations involving Russia and his presidential campaign, will launch once Trump returns from his overseas trip.<\/p>\n \nUpon Trump\u2019s return, the administration will add experienced political professionals and possibly more lawyers to handle the Russia probe, which has gained new urgency since the Justice Department appointed a special counsel to head the investigation, the sources said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n On Thursday, NBC News reported that Kushner, who held several meetings with Russian officials following the election, is himself a focus of the probe, making him the first current White House official to be caught up in it, although Kushner, who is Trump’s son-in-law, has not been accused of any wrongdoing. On Friday afternoon, the AP quoted <\/a>Kushner’s lawyer that if the FBI wants to talk to Jared Kushner about his Russian contacts, he stands ready to talk to federal investigators as well as Congress about his contacts and his role in Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.<\/p>\n FBI probe aside, Kushner and Bannon will work to step up the White House\u2019s strategic messaging. Trump\u2019s former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski – who has been seen in the White House recently – is also expected to be part of the messaging operation according to Reuters. Bannon and White House chief of staff Reince Priebus have been laying the groundwork for the messaging operation this week, sources told the news outlet.<\/p>\n \u201cSince the firing of Comey, that really exposed the fact that the White House in its current structure … is not prepared for really a one-front war, let alone a two-front war,\u201d a person who remains in regular communication with the White House told Reuters. \u201cThey need to have a structure in place that allows them to stay focused, [while] also truly fighting back on these attacks and these leaks.\u201d<\/p>\n The “war room” is just one of the steps Trump and his advisers plan to take to respond to the probe into Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election. Trump reportedly hired Marc Kasowitz as his personal attorney earlier this week to represent him and guide him through the Russia investigations following the appointment of former FBI director Robert Mueller as special counsel to oversee the Russia investigation. The president and his team are putting together a legal team of prominent lawyers who can help him best proceed through the questions surrounding whether his campaign colluded with Moscow.<\/p>\n Quoted by Reuters, Christopher Ruddy, chief executive of Newsmax Media and a Trump friend, said he expects the president will travel more when he returns from overseas and encouraged the White House to focus on issues that pump up his base voters. \u201cFrom my perspective, I think the president should be doing the stuff that he does best, which is talking about his agenda: jobs, trade and security,\u201d Ruddy said.<\/p>\n Republicans in Congress are aching for Trump to leave the distraction of the Russia probe aside and focus on legislation and nominating officials to fill the hundreds of vacant slots across the administration. \u201cWhat we really want to be able to do is tend to our business,\u201d Mike Rounds, a Republican Senator from South Dakota, told Reuters. “We’ve got a healthcare bill we’re working on. We’ve got tax reform that we think is important.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier on Friday, former House Speaker John Boehner <\/a>said that Trump’s time in office has been a “complete disaster” aside from foreign affairs. Boehner told an energy conference he supported efforts to “get to the bottom” of any potential interactions between Trump associates and the Russian government but described any calls to impeach Trump as the purview of “the crazy left-wing Democratic colleagues of mine.”<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n Second, in a separate but similar report from the WSJ, <\/a>the paper writes that Trump is “actively discussing major changes” in the White House, including a shakeup of his senior team<\/strong>, after spending much of his free time during his overseas trip weighing the Russia investigation and the political crisis it poses for him. A flurry of meetings devoted to White House operations are scheduled for next week, officials said, and sparks are expected to fly.<\/p>\n