Impeachment talk: Trump in trouble

American President Donald Trump's controversy-ridden presidency is roiled in yet another scandal. A whistleblower complaint relating to a transcript of a conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25 lays bare the former’s conscious misuse of power for his own private political benefit. In that conversation, the US president can be heard asking his Ukrainian counterpart repeatedly to dig up dirt on his political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who hold business interests in Ukraine. Biden is expected to emerge as the Democratic Party’s candidate in the 2020 presidential election and Trump’s conversation suggests that he was planning to smear Biden’s run for the presidency to boost his own chances for re-election. Trump can be heard repeatedly reminding the Zelensky of how much the United States does and can do for Ukraine. This is evidently related to the aid the US gives Ukraine. The Trump administration is reported to be holding up some $250 million in military aid. It is evident that Trump was warning Zelensky that this aid would not be released to Ukraine if he failed to do his bidding. It reveals the extent to which Trump will go to win an election. This, of course, is nothing new. In 2016, Trump campaign officials are believed to have conspired and worked with Russian government officials to interfere in the US presidential election by snooping on Hillary Clinton’s emails and releasing information to help Trump.

This time, Trump has not only sought a foreign government’s help to boost his re-election chances but worse, unlike in 2016, when he was just a candidate, this time around he is the president of the US and has thus misused presidential powers to benefit himself, not the national interest. Besides, White House officials misused a highly-classified database that is used for data on covert operations to protect the President’s corruption and misuse of power.

Trump’s presidency is littered with countless shameful scandals and controversies. Trump managed to get away unpunished because in many instances there were no transcripts of his role in obstructing investigations. There was no transcript of the conversation between Trump and the then FBI director James Comey, for instance, where Trump asked him to drop the probe into Michael Flynn. There are no transcripts either of Trump’s conversation with his lawyer discussing hush money payment to Stormy Daniels. This time it is different. There is a transcript of the conversation and hence solid evidence against the president encouraging the Democrats to move forward with formal impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives. This may not culminate in his impeachment or even hurt his re-election chances. Still, there is a reason for some satisfaction. Trump is in trouble.