Trump’s Notorious Mobster Call with Zelensky Wasn’t So “Perfect”
On This Day In 2019
Volodymyr Zelensky wanted to talk about defending his people. But Trump preferred to talk about something else in his infamous phone call with Ukraine’s president. “I would like you to do us a favor,” Trump informed him.
Please lie about my competitor. The favor Trump sought was for Zelensky to spread false information about Trump’s political rival Joe Biden, and also about CrowdStrike -- the firm which had helped uncover Russia’s 2016 election meddling. In exchange, Trump implied he would release military and financial aid to Ukraine which had been promised by Congress but which had mysteriously been held up by the White House for some undefined reason.
Trump underlings such as Rudy Giuliani also applied pressure behind the scenes to Zelensky, wanting him to dig up non-existent dirt on Biden and his family in exchange for that aid.
Why was this so wrong? Congress had authorized the aid, and Ukraine needed it to help defend against a threatened invasion by Putin’s army -- the invasion which did indeed take place not so long thereafter. And Trump was legally obligated to send it. And obviously it's wrong to use the power of the presidency to extort a foreign leader for his personal gain.
Only after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi voiced support for a formal impeachment inquiry did the White House declassify the call’s transcript, OTDI 2019.
Impeachment 1.0: Trump called his call “perfect” and claimed he’d done nothing wrong. Hey, why even bother to have an investigation?
The House of Representatives didn’t agree and voted to impeach Trump—only the third time a president had ever been impeached. Former GOP Presidential candidate and current senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) was among those who voted in favor of Trump’s ouster, calling Trump “guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust.” But the rest of the GOP-led Senate, cowering behind party lines, declined to remove Trump from office.
Is it due to bitterness over the impeachment of their party's leader that GOP members of Congress have, in more recent years, tried to block further aid to Zelensky? Regardless, their strings are still being pulled by their puppet master from behind the scenes -- by a man who has shown repeatedly that he's eager to suck up to Putin and do him curious favors.
2023 Update: Trump’s stunning confession. In October 2023, The New York Times revealed that, according to an Australian businessman, Trump had disclosed top-secret info to him about our nuclear submarines. Interestingly, Trump also told the Australian that his shakedown of Zelensky “was nothing compared to what I usually do (to foreign leaders).”
Dive Deeper
Read the full memorandum
CNN reported on Trump’s pressure campaign against anyone trying to hold him accountable
Check out the New York Times’ reporting on Trump’s boasts and leaks