Trump returns to US in triumphant spirits
President’s impeachment trial opens with fiery clashes over witnesses
DAVOS: US President Donald Trump flew back to his Washington impeachment trial in triumphant spirits yesterday after turning the Davos forum into a victory tour for the US economy and scoffing at his Democratic opponents. For two days, Trump was unstoppable as he ignored Davos’ supposed focus on global warming and inequality. Barely mentioning climate crisis, he relentlessly touted US employment figures and GDP growth and bathed in the attention of CEOs and billionaires.
“Everybody is talking about America’s unprecedented economic success. It’s really the talk of the town,” he crowed at a press conference organized at the last minute before departure, enabling him to give himself one more shout-out. Yesterday morning was breakfast with a Who’s Who of American CEOs - the bosses of companies like Morgan Stanley and Apple.
Tuesday evening it had been the turn of fo-r eign corporate titans and the boss of world soccer body FIFA, Gianni Infantino, who declared Trump to be “made of the same sort of fibre” as elite athletes. Then there was Trump’s speech on Tuesday, given top billing by Davos’ World Economic Forum for its 50th annual gathering in the Swiss mountain resort. The hall was packed, the overflow rooms were packed, but Trump told them what he came to tell - not the message of global togetherness and environmental healing that many of them wanted to hear. Mocking climate campaigners as “the heirs of yesterday’s foolish fortune tellers”, he instead delivered a rousing defense of fossil fuel industries and said that technical ingenuity could find a solution to any problem. “The American dream is back, bigger, better, stronger than ever before,” he said.
Scoffing at impeachment While the Davos crowd watched in adoration or, in many cases, consternation, Trump’s real audience was back home in the US Senate and in the swing states like Wisconsin that will decide his fate in the November election. The booming economy is the backbone of that reelection campaign, with history showing that an incumbent is hard to beat at a time of strong growth. But more immediately, Trump was talking to the senators about to reconvene for a second day in his impeachment trial for abuse of office and obstruction.
Trump’s Republican majority has made clear it will do almost anything to ensure his acquittal and with his roaring boasts of success in Davos he seemed to dare the Democrats to take him on. Half jokingly, Trump even said he would “love” to walk into the Senate himself and observe the trial. “I’d love to go. I’d sort of love (to) sit in the front row and stare in their corrupt faces,” Trump said at the press conference. Asked if he wanted the trial to be concluded as quickly as possible, with no witnesses allowed and no extra evidence released, Trump said “I would rather go the long way”.
Even if acquitted, he will forever bear the stigma of being only the third president in US history to face an impeachment trial. At his press conference, Trump sounded incredulous that someone with the kind of success he was touting in Davos could even be accused of wrongdoing. “All I do is honest. I make great deals. I make great deals for our country,” he said. “I make great deals for our country and they’re honest deals.” With that, Trump boarded the Marine One helicopter to lift over the Alps down to Zurich and a waiting Air Force One - and back to Washington. Republicans and Democrats battled over summoning highlevel White House witnesses Tuesday in a marathon first day of arguments in Trump’s trial for abuse of power. The two sides squared off in fiery exchanges that circled around the procedures for the trial and gave the Democrats an opportunity to spell out their arguments for Trump’s guilt on national television. But Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell flexed his own political muscle, mobilizing his side’s 53-47 majority in the body to slap down Democratic attempts to amend the trial procedures that he reportedly crafted together with the White House and designed to protect Trump. After 13 hours, just before 2 am, McConnell was successful in pushing back every Democratic effort, ensuring Republicans had control over a trial they hope will be wrapped up by the end of the month.
McConnell’s rules set out a schedule of six days of arguments, three days by the House impeachment managers and then three days by Trump’s defense team, to be followed by one day of questions from the 100 Senators, who sit as jury in the trial. Democrats though were angered by McConnell’s refusal to call witnesses and subpoena documents before the trial’s arguments phase is over. They want to hear from current and former top Trump aides, including White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security advisor John Bolton. Without any guarantee that witnesses would be called even at that time, they sought in a lastditch move to give the presiding judge, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, the last word on calling witnesses. That too was rejected in a stark party-line vote. “They don’t want a fair trial,” said Adam Schiff, the leader of the House impeachment managers prosecuting the case. “They don’t want you to hear these witnesses... they don’t want a neutral justice to weigh in.”
But Schiff’s team took advantage of the opportunity to seek amendments to occupy the television cameras for most of the hearing and lay out their case against the US leader. They used detailed graphics and played videos of US diplomats testifying late last year to demonstrate that Trump oversaw the months-long scheme to pressure Ukraine to help him politically damage potential 2020 election opponent Joe Biden and the Democrats.