Quote:"The White House is paralyzed," a top Republican close to the West Wing told CNN ahead of Trump's departure to Paris, a withering assessment of an administration whose goals of passing a health care bill, overhauling the tax code and defeating ISIS have been complicated once again.

"Another week lost," is how one official described the legislative timeline for Trump and Republicans, an acknowledgment that the latest swirl of Russia developments complicate an already imperiled agenda.

Quote:The President approached the news about Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting through the same lens he approaches everything with the word Russia in it, according to another person who has spoken with him: as an effort by his enemies and the media to discredit him and his presidency.

Privately, Trump has expressed dismay that Trump Jr. agreed to meet with the Russian lawyer, according to a Republican source, who said the President believes it wasn't a smart move -- but also that his son did not run afoul of the law.

Trump, the Republican source said, is annoyed that the narrative surrounding the meeting has become a distraction from what he and his advisers saw as a successful overseas trip last week to Poland and Germany.