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Donald Trump is under severe pressure after a disastrous run which saw his impeachment defense shredded by current and ex-officials and, most stunningly, by his own acting White House chief of staff.
He must also placate fellow Republicans on whom he will depend to save his presidency in any Senate trial, after triggering self-inflicted crises over Syria and the G7 summit that tested his party’s tolerance for its volatile leader.
And the signs don’t look great for an improvement for Trump in the week ahead, with a new battery of State Department officials expected to testify to three Democratic committees taking depositions in the impeachment inquiry about Trump’s alleged abuse of power on Ukraine.
US officials expected to trek up to Capitol Hill this week include the top American diplomat in Ukraine Bill Taylor — possibly as soon as Tuesday. The career foreign service officer was thrust into the public eye following the release of his text exchanges with former Special Envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker and ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland.
In the exchanges, Taylor expressed concern about foreign policy moves being tied to political motives, writing that it was “crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”
Read more of Collinson’s analysis here.
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