It hasn’t been a sleepy August on the White House beat despite nearing the end of summer and the annual Congressional recess that usually slows the pace in the nation’s capital.

President Donald Trump made 26 public engagements this month, most recently, a three-plus-hour Cabinet meeting Tuesday where the president fielded questions on topics from Taylor Swift’s engagement to global conflicts.

So it was certainly unusual when, for three weekdays at the end of the month, Trump’s public schedule went uncharacteristically dark.

There were no events on his schedule on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, and it was announced that the president would spend his Labor Day weekend in Washington also with no public appearances scheduled. The conspicuous absence lighting conspiratorial corners of the

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