"White House aides feeling 'helpless' as Trump Jr. scandal blossoms": "White House aides feel blindsided by the bombshell revelations around Donald Trump Jr.'s campaign meeting with a Russian lawyer, while the president is using his relatively light schedule to watch TV and fume about the latest scandal, according to interviews with half a dozen White House officials and advisers. Unlike prior Russia-related controversies, the White House is not minimizing the political ramifications of Trump's eldest son's decision to meet with the Kremlin-linked lawyer after being offered information that he was told would 'incriminate' Hillary Clinton as 'part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump.'"
"But top West Wing aides are exasperated by their limited ability to steer the damage control and the risk that more damaging news has yet to emerge. One Trump adviser said the White House was 'essentially helpless' because the conduct happened in an 'anything goes' campaign that had few rules. This person said he had spoken to several people in the White House on Tuesday, and that 'none of them knew anything about Donald Trump Jr.'s meetings,' despite the fact that top adviser Jared Kushner was also present for the controversial Trump Tower sit-down. Many of the White House aides had previously dismissed the Russia stories as 'conspiracy bullshit,' this person said, but that this scandal was not being dismissed as that." http://politi.co/2tGPK5R

-- NYT'S PETER BAKER and MAGGIE HABERMAN: "Rancor at White House as Russia Story Refuses to Let the Page Turn": "As Air Force One jetted back from Europe on Saturday, a small cadre of Mr. Trump's advisers huddled in a cabin helping to craft a statement for the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., to give to The New York Times explaining why he met last summer with a lawyer connected to the Russian government. Participants on the plane and back in the United States debated how transparent to be in the statement, according to people familiar with the discussions. Ultimately, the people said, the president signed off on a statement from Donald Trump Jr. for The Times that was so incomplete that it required day after day of follow-up statements, each more revealing than the last. ... The Russia story has become the brier patch from which the president seemingly cannot escape. ... Advisers said the president was annoyed not so much by his son as by the headlines.
"But three people close to the legal team said he had also trained his ire on Marc E. Kasowitz, his longtime lawyer, who is leading the team of private lawyers representing him. Mr. Trump, who often vents about advisers in times of trouble, has grown disillusioned by Mr. Kasowitz's strategy ... The strain, though, exists on both sides. Mr. Kasowitz and his colleagues have been deeply frustrated by the president. And they have complained that Mr. Kushner has been whispering in the president's ear about the Russia investigations and stories while keeping the lawyers out of the loop, according to another person familiar with the legal team. But one person familiar with Mr. Kasowitz's thinking said his concerns did not relate to Mr. Kushner. The president's lawyers view Mr. Kushner as an obstacle and a freelancer more concerned about protecting himself than his father-in-law, the person said. While no ultimatum has been delivered, the lawyers have told colleagues that they cannot keep operating that way, raising the prospect that Mr. Kasowitz may resign." http://nyti.ms/2sOYfsx

PERHAPS the most important detail of the day is Peter and Maggie's reporting that shows the White House crafted Don Jr.'s statement.

-- WAPO'S PHIL RUCKER and ASHLEY PARKER: "'Category 5 hurricane': White House under siege by Trump Jr.'s Russia revelations": "The White House has been thrust into chaos after days of ever-worsening revelations about a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a lawyer characterized as representing the Russian government, as the president fumes against his enemies and senior aides circle one another with suspicion, according to top White House officials and outside advisers. President Trump ... is enraged that the Russia cloud still hangs over his presidency and is exasperated that his eldest son and namesake has become engulfed by it, said people who have spoken with him this week. ...

"Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter and senior advise r; Jared Kushner, her husband and another senior adviser; and first lady Melania Trump have been privately pressing the president to shake up his team -- most specifically by replacing Reince Priebus as the White House chief of staff, according to two senior White House officials and one ally close to the White House. ... After this story first published, Josh Raffel, a White House spokesman, said in a statement on behalf of Kushner and Ivanka Trump: 'Jared and Ivanka are focused on working with Reince and the team to advance the President's agenda and not on pushing for staff changes.' ... One White House official went so far as to stop communicating with the president's embattled son, although this official spoke sympathetically about his plight, casting Trump Jr. as someone who just wants to hunt, fish and run his family's real estate business." http://wapo.st/2sOAC3G

BY THE WAY ... Say what you want about Reince, but he has nothing to do with the scandals engulfing this administration. His job is literally impossible: he has to impose order on a president who thrives off chaos.

-- JONATHAN LEMIRE and JULIE PACE of the AP: "As Russia scandal touches his son, Trump privately rages": "The public has not laid eyes on the president since his return from Europe Saturday. But in private, Trump has raged against the latest Russia development, with most of his ire directed at the media, not his son, according to people who have spoken to him in recent days.'" http://bit.ly/2uhCt5n