18 October 2019

Another Very Bad Day

Yesterday was another very bad day for Donald Trump and his administration, made all the more so by several major unforced errors.

In an extreme self-wounding act that can't be undone, Trump's chief of staff admitted openly to reporters that the President had broken the law when demanding a campaign favor from Ukraine in exchange for the release of foreign aide, but not for the reason everyone has been saying (details here and here).

Once you admit committing a crime, quibbling over the motive becomes immaterial. Motive only comes onto play when a party pleads not guilty. Not surprisingly, the admission enraged officials at the Justice Department and inside the White House.

And yesterday, another member of Trump's own administration appeared on Capitol Hill before the House Intelligence Committee and gave damning testimony that will hurt Trump in the all-but-certain impeachment action now pending. More than a few publications reporting on the event noted how the former Trump loyalist threw the President and his attorney "under the bus" (details here and here).

Syria and the Turkish invasion continued to be a nightmare for Trump. After the President sent an extraordinarily embarrassing letter to the president of Turkey, he completely caved to their position and allowed the much smaller nation to bully the United States (details here). As the linked article notes, "Trump was bragging about what he considered to be a sign of his own brilliance without realizing that it was instead evidence of abject failure."

And last, but certainly not least, in an episode that shows how clueless Trump and his inner circle are about the crisis in which they're drowning, the White House announced yesterday that the next G-7 international conference of world leaders would be held at one of the President's own golf courses, a move that will enrich him by countless millions. As one Washington pundit put it, the decision was worthy of impeachment all on its own.

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