As Todd Blanche, Erica Schwartz and Jay Clayton face the Senate, a fundamental disconnect becomes clear

There’s been a lot of discussion in America this week about the meaning of integrity.

You didn’t hear the word used directly; it was alluded to indirectly – in wondering whether Lindsey Graham was an immoral opportunist or clever pragmatist; in suspecting Todd Blanche of being more loyal to Trump than to the nation; in distrusting Erica Schwartz, Trump’s latest pick to lead the CDC, when she said she would never compromise on the science; in doubting Jay Clayton, his pick for director of national intelligence, will tell Trump anything he doesn’t want to hear.

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now in the US and in the UK

It comes from his willingness to violate all norms, rules and laws – and leaving everyone else to pick up the pieces

At the Nato summit just ended, Trump lashed out at other Nato members, saying he was “very disappointed with Nato” and asking: “Why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars, and they’re not there for us?” He reiterated his desire to take over Greenland, blasted European energy and immigration policies, insulted Spain, and worried allies by declaring that the fighting between Kyiv and Moscow “doesn’t affect us”.

Yet throughout the proceedings, Trump was treated by other Nato powers with as much courtesy and respect as any US president has ever received from Nato – perhaps more. “It was a great meeting, there was a lot of love in that room, a lot of unity,” Trump said when it was over.

With the economy, foreign policy and immigration all going poorly for the president, he’s scrambling before the midterms

Trump has run out of cards to play in the midterm elections, which is why he’s now talking about the “communist menace”.

He can’t talk about the economy because prices continue to rise faster than wages, which means most Americans are getting poorer. He can’t talk about foreign policy because his war in Iran has been a debacle, his tariffs an utter failure, and he obviously hasn’t settled the war in Ukraine on “day one”. He can’t talk about immigration because his raids and mass deportations have become so unpopular.

We try to teach our children to follow the rules. Now an American president has chosen the opposite tack

I’m rooting for the US as we take on Belgium today in Seattle for a place in the World Cup quarterfinals.

But the game isn’t what it was – before Trump asked the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, to review the suspension of the US’s top scorer, striker Folarin Balogun, who got a red card in a match against Bosnia and Herzegovina and would otherwise have been suspended from Monday’s match.