- his illegal diversions of appropriated funds for building his southern border wall in defiance of Congressional spending authority, where such authority was explicitly denied
- his attempts to quash the Russian investigation, despise his explicit vested interest, including but not restricted to the termination of Comey and repeated threats against principals of the investigation, including Sessions, Rosenstein, and of course Mueller himself
- his unconstitutional unprovoked military attack on Syria and prosecution of expanded undeclared drone wars without Congressional authority
- his abuse of the veto authority, e.g., on the "national emergency" for wall building and on funding for Saudi Arabia's military intervention in Yemen. In effect, Trump transformed Congress' spending authority to super-majority status as to his authoritarian decisions.
- Trump has inappropriately intervened in justice matters, notably including the Bergdahl court-martial, in which Trump as Commander-in-Chief attacking Bergdahl, compromising his rights to a fair trial.
Now comes the question of Trump's conversation with Ukraine Presidency Zelensky, as recently referenced by a whistleblower. There seems to be a kerfuffle over whether Trump negotiated a quid pro quo with respect to alleged wrongdoings of political rival Joe Biden and his son. I don't care whether Trump engaged in a smoking gun, direct linkage or a "wink and a nod" indirect linkage. Let's be clear:
The President: Well it’s very nice of you to say that. I will say that we do a lot for Ukraine. We spend a lot of effort and a lot of time....A lot of the European countries [have done close to nothing for Ukraine] so I think it’s something you want to look at but the United States has been very very good to Ukraine.
Okay, this is a not-so-subtle reminder that Ukraine doesn't have a lot of friends, the US has been a reliable ally, and [unspoken but clearly implied] Trump has a lot of say over continued support of the Ukraine. He also explicitly points out in the same quote that Ukraine hasn't done much in return for US support. (See the cited NYT piece for the full quote.] This is an obvious harbinger that Trump wants something in return for sustaining the relationship.
The President: I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike...I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it
This appears to be in reference to a Giuliani hypothesis that Ukraine was somehow implicated in the theft of DNC emails prior to the 2016 election.
The President: Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General. Rudy very much knows what’s happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great....The other thing, There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it... It sounds horrible to me.
Now we're getting to the main course. Trump is trying to manipulate Zelensky, arguing that Biden interfered in Ukraine's internal affairs to prevent prosecution of his son, Hunter, and it's in new President Zelenwky's political interest to reopen the case. Trump is willing to give Zelensky full access to Trump's people, including Giuliani and AG Barr, to facilitate prosecution of the Bidens, something that no doubt adversely affect the viability of political rival Biden's campaign. There is no legitimate national interest in raising the topic of Biden in the conversation. This is Trump's abusing his office, his role in conducting foreign relations, for personal, political gain. It's intrinsically corrupt, self-serving, and unconstitutional.
Zelensky: I would kindly ask you if you have any additional information that you can provide to us, it would be very helpful for the investigation
The Prewidenr: I will have Mr. Giuliani give you a call and I am also going to have Attorney General Barr call and we will get to the bottom of it.
Zelensky doesn't promise that a reopened case will give Trump the outcome he is looking for, but he would be open to Trump's legal bitches providing relevant evidence. Again, Trump is using taxpayer-paid resources (Giuliani and Barr) for purposes benefiting not US interests but at the expense of his political rival, Biden.
“I do not want Ukraine to again be the subject of U.S. presidential elections,” [Ukraine Prosecutor General] Lutsenko said in an interview Tuesday in his office in Kiev. “Hunter Biden did not violate any Ukrainian laws -- at least as of now, we do not see any wrongdoing. A company can pay however much it wants to its board.” He said if there is a tax problem, it’s not in Ukraine.
There is no way to spin this to benefit Trump. What he did was for the benefit of his own political self-interest. It is blatantly unconstitutional and a violation of his oath of office. Congressional Republicans are in the hotseat. Just like Senate Democrats in effect argued what Clinton did was wrong but not serious enough to warrant removal from office, Republicans may argue that what Trump did is not serious enough to warrant removal, with the national election just over 13 months away.
Trump has been playing with fire his whole term of office. I've made it clear if I were in Congress, I would vote to impeach him and remove him for office. That being said, I never bought into the Russian collusion conspiracy, and I don't think that Statist Dems have any issue with Trump's authoritarian impulses, the imperial Presidency, as I do; it's mostly politically based. But I have ZERO empathy for Trump; he brought this on himself.
