WASHINGTON — In an effort to regain control of its message, the White House has curtailed media briefings, redirected questions on the Russia investigation to an outside lawyer and planned a major infrastructure policy rollout for this week.

But as long as President Trump has a smartphone, no White House strategy is safe.

The sun was still rising Monday when Trump upended best-laid plans with a blitz of provocative statements delivered via Twitter. He assailed his own Justice Department for its legal strategy to defend his travel ban, potentially creating new headaches as his administration seeks the Supreme Court’s backing for the order. And he renewed his criticism of the mayor of London, a city recovering from a weekend vehicle-and-knife attack that left seven people dead.

“To the extent that there is a process for making decisions and communicating them, he seems to ignore it more often than not,” Alex Conant, a top adviser to Sen. Marco Rubio’s presidential bid, said of the president.

Indeed, the president’s free-wheeling, undisciplined style has made it nearly impossible for the White House to regroup after weeks of damaging reports about possible ties between his campaign and Russia, as well as a steady drumbeat of speculation about internal conflict and disarray. The struggle will come to a head Thursday when fired FBI Director James Comey is due to testify on Capitol Hill.

Efforts to create a “war room” stocked with former campaign officials and top-flight lawyers now appear stalled. Three people briefed on the matter said the process has been bogged down by a lack of decision-making in the West Wing over how to proceed, as well as reluctance from some of those the White House hoped to recruit about serving a president who keeps getting in his own way.

Even George Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, appeared to give voice to the frustrations Monday. Mimicking a favorite Trump expression, George Conway wrote on Twitter that the president’s comment on the travel ban won’t help the administration get votes in the Supreme Court, “which is what actually matters. Sad.”

Conway confirmed to The Associated Press that the tweet was authentic. His comments came days after he announced he was withdrawing from consideration for a top Justice Department post.

Trump supporters have long touted his unfiltered tweets and other communications as an unparalleled advantage. Yet some allies are now urging caution given the legal questions shadowing the White House.

“My personal view is that there should be a review process because of the sensitivity of so many of them,” said Chris Ruddy, a longtime friend of Trump and CEO of the conservative outlet Newsmax.

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