Probe shadow over Trump’s NATO trip
LONDON: As US President Donald Trump kicks off a two-day whirlwind of meet-ings with NATO alliance members, his focus appears centred on the impeachment inquiry at home.
Before flying to London to meet other leaders of the 29- member alliance, Mr Trump accused Democrats of trying to embarrass him by schedul-ing this week’s impeachment hearing while he was overseas.
He labelled the trip“one of the most important journeys that we make as president ”, saying Democrats had long known about it. He continued lashing out at Democrats minutes after landing in London, touting a Republican impeachment re-port calling his decision to hold up military aid to Ukraine “entirely prudent .”
Democrats contend Mr Trump abused his presidential powers by holding up the aid to pressure Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to inves-tigate former US vice- presi-dent Joe Biden and his son .
“Prior to landing I read the Republicans Report on the Impeachment Hoax. Great job! Radical Left has NO CASE ,” Mr Trump tweeted.
“Read the Transcripts. Shouldn’ t even be allowed. Can we go to Supreme Court to stop ?”
The London trip comes amid quarrels over defence spending by NATO allies and widespread anxiety over MrTrump’s commitment to the alliance.
Mr Trump’ s busy schedule in London includes meetings with French President Emma-nu el Macron, German Chan-cellor Angela Merkel, Canadian Prime Minister Jus-tin Trudeau, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte. He will also attend tea with Prince Charles and his wife Camilla.
The Queen and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will host Mr Trump and other NATO leaders at back-to-back receptions.
Mr Trump is also sched-uled to squeeze in a campaign fund raiser with US expatriate supporters that is expected to raise $3 million for his re-elec-tion effort and the Republican National Committee.
The meeting with Mr Mac-ron comes after chief US trade representative Robert Light-hizer recommended $2.4 billion in new tariff son French products including cheese and sparkling wine.
That followed a five-month investigation that concluded a French digital services tax un-fairly discriminated against US tech companies including Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon.
Mr Trump said his trip would be focused on “fighting for the American people ”.
The House Judiciary Com-mittee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the constitutional grounds for impeachment be-fore Mr Trump wraps up his NATO meeting.