Republican elected officials, who increasingly have been putting distance between themselves and President Trump, jumped quickly away from him Saturday after his equivocating response to the violence in Charlottesville, Va.

Some, including Sen. Cory Gardner, who heads the Republican effort to elect senators in next year's midterm election, repudiated Trump directly, criticizing him for not condemning the white supremacist groups that marched in the Virginia college town Friday and Saturday. 

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida also critiqued Trump for not directly labeling as a terrorist attack Saturday's assault by a car, in which at least one person was killed and roughly 20 injured. 

President Trump said blame for violence by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., belongs "on many sides," just after authorities confirmed that at least one person had died in an attack earlier in the day by a car.  

The president's statement Saturday, from his golf club in New Jersey, is sure to enflame criticism that already had built over two days as he first was silent on white supremacist violence and then posted two tweets that generically condemned hate without citing any groups.

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides, on many sides," Trump said.

President Trump tweeted two statements Saturday responding to the riotous actions of white nationalists and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Va.

The first was a generic statement condemning hate and violence, in which he continued for a second day not to comment specifically on the nature of the demonstrations.

That post on Twitter about 1:30 p.m. ET came amid building criticism, including from Republicans, that he had not spoken out against the clashes.

President Trump on Monday will start a process that could lead to action against China, which has been accused of stealing American businesses' intellectual property, even as he seeks Beijing's help against nuclear threats from North Korea.

Several administration officials outlined the highly preliminary trade action to reporters Saturday, suggesting — contrary to Trump's own statements — that trade policy toward China is divorced from any national security concern, including North Korea. 

"Trade is trade; national security is national security," said one official, who, like the others, spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with administration practice.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping urged restraint in a phone call with President Trump on Saturday, following a week of blustery rhetoric between North Korea and the U.S.
 
Xi warned that “concerned parties” should avoid “remarks and actions” that could escalate tensions on the Korean peninsula, according to the state-run New China News Agency. He reiterated China’s desire to work with the U.S., citing “common interests” in preserving stability in the region.
 
Trump understands China’s efforts to resolve the issue, the report said, and both leaders agreed to keep in close contact. The call took place late Friday evening on the East Coast.
 
State media portrayed Xi as the voice of calm amid a trade-off of threats this week between Pyongyang and Washington. Trump on Friday said the U.S. military was “locked and loaded” and warned North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would “regret it fast” if he endangered the U.S. or its allies. The isolated nation, earlier this week, laid out a detailed plan to launch ballistic missiles into waters near Guam, a U.S. territory.
 
China has repeatedly called for negotiations and scorned military action. It agreed to recent United Nations sanctions but fears a refugee crisis and the loss of a buffer state if North Korea’s economy collapses. 
 
The Global Times, a Communist Party tabloid, warned Friday that China wouldn’t assist North Korea if it attacked U.S. territory and America retaliated. But if the U.S and South Korea try to carry out strikes and overthrow the North Korean  government, “China will prevent them from doing so.” 
 
U.S. officials painted the call as one of friendly agreement. The two leaders affirmed North Korea must stop “its provocative and escalatory behavior,” the White House said in a statement.
 
The relationship between the two presidents is “an extremely close one,” the administration added, calling Trump’s upcoming visit to China “a very historic event.”
 
Their conversation comes as Trump prepares to announce an investigation on Monday into China’s intellectual property practices, according to Politico.
 
Neither statement mentioned the trade issue. 

President Trump, in the midst of a week of high tensions with North Korea over its nuclear program, on Friday introduced the possibility of another military confrontation — with Venezuela — surprising most observers.

"We have many options for Venezuela," he told reporters at his golf club in New Jersey after meeting with United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and national security advisor H.R. McMaster. "And by the way, I'm not going to rule out a military option." 

It was unclear how seriously to take the threat, given Trump's propensity to speak off the cuff and the casual nature of the statement. He often says he does not like to take any options of the table because he believes it keeps adversaries off balance.

In threatening to launch an attack on Guam, the Korean Central News Agency, North Korea’s state-run media, used the term 포위사격 (powi sagyuk), which a popular online dictionary translates as “enveloping fire” or “converging fire.”

But “fire” as used by the North Koreans in this instance doesn’t mean flames, as suggested by President Trump’s “fire and fury” remark.

Rather, sagyuk means to fire or shoot in the sense of firing a gun or missile at a target. Powi means to encircle or surround. The phrase powi sagyuk is more of a technical military threat – that missiles will come from all directions – than a blustery rhetorical one as the translation “enveloping fire” might suggest.

If the U.S. diplomatic community reacted in shock yesterday when President Trump said he would thank Russian President Vladimir Putin for ordering the U.S. to cut its diplomatic staff in Russia by 755, Russian lawmakers said they were calling the U.S. president’s bluff.

"The reaction of U.S. President Donald Trump to the expulsion of American diplomats from Russia is, of course, a kind of a ‘good face in a bad game,’” said Leonid Slutsky, the chairman of the Committee on International Affairs in the Russian parliament.

Putin last month announced that the U.S. diplomatic mission to Russia must be cut to 455, the same number of staff in Russia’s embassies and consulates in the U.S. Moscow also seized two diplomatic properties in Moscow used by the U.S. embassy.  The move was seen as retaliation for former President Barack Obama’s decision to expel 35 Russian intelligence officers and retake two houses used by the Russian embassy in Maryland and New York.

President Trump on Friday released another provocative statement aimed at North Korea, tweeting "military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely."

"Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!"

Trump's comments, at least some of which have not been scripted with his foreign policy team, have alarmed many allies and members of the foreign policy community, who have expressed concern about enflaming a volatile situation with an unpredictable nuclear foe.

President Trump said he has no intention of firing Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating his administration’s ties to Russia, a probe that he repeatedly has attacked as a “witch hunt.”

Trump, speaking to reporters at his Bedminster, N.J., club after a meeting with advisors Thursday, again insisted that there had been no collusion between his campaign and Russian leaders, but cooled his fiery rhetoric attacking Mueller and Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions.

“I haven’t given it any thought,” he said, when asked whether he might fire Mueller.