“You say what you need to say to keep the sun coming up in the morning, but if you woke Ty Cobb up in the middle of the night and ask him if he thinks this is really going to be over in three weeks, I think his answer is, ‘Are you fucking kidding me? Of course it won’t,’” said one white-collar attorney representing a senior Trump official in the Russia probe. “But it may be the most useful thing he can say to keep the president from going overboard and to keep the wheels on the bus.”

But a person familiar with the Trump team’s legal strategy said Cobb and Trump’s personal lawyers John Dowd and Jay Sekulow face a major challenge in trying to contain a president who has proven to be trigger-happy with his complaints about the Russia probe on Twitter and in casual discussions with lawmakers, friends and aides that end up making it into mainstream media reporting.