Trail to impeachment begins with president’s fragile ego

We learned much during the impeachment hearings. We also were reminded of why the hearings are taking place:

Though he projects an image of strength and confidence, President Trump is a weak, insecure man. Without this great flaw, which dominates his presidency, Trump would not be facing impeachment.

Every U.S. intelligence agency has concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, seeking to help Trump. Indictments from the Mueller investigation explain how Russian military intelligence units hacked Democratic emails and unleashed social media bots to create discord among American voters.

Faced with this incontrovertible evidence, a strong, self-confident Donald Trump early on could have said something like this to the nation:

“I believe that I beat Hillary Clinton because I ran a better campaign with a better message. But any attempt by any foreign country to influence our elections is unacceptable, and Russia made such an attempt. It puts our democracy at risk.

“So my administration will make every effort to prevent such influence. I have told President Putin that I intend to ask Congress for sanctions against Russia because of the hacking, and that another attempt will mean serious consequences for him and his country.”

Many Americans still would have had legitimate complaints about his policies, but Trump would have looked like a president who places country first. Instead, Trump retreated to the echo chamber of right-wing media, where truth goes to die.

Unable to admit the obvious, he fixated on the myth that Ukraine – not Russia – interfered in the election and did so to help Clinton. That fixation led Trump to enlist Rudy Giuliani and others in a scheme outside the diplomatic chain of command.

Based on the impeachment testimony, you can see why Trump opened his back channel. The scheme was an unprecedented abuse of power. Presidents use back channels for the national interest, as John F. Kennedy did during the Cuban Missile Crisis. They don’t – shouldn’t – use them for their political interest.

Yet Trump can’t let the Ukraine myth go, because of that rampant insecurity. So if Joe Biden – in Trump’s mind – looms as his biggest threat to re-election and there’s a Ukraine connection, why not break one more norm?

Trump had every reason to believe that he could succeed. His Republican enablers have indulged the malignantly narcissistic Trump as he trashes every supposed GOP benchmark – fiscal conservatism, anti-communism, “family values.”

After the impeachment testimony, the new tactic is willful ignorance: Ukraine got the money, and there was no investigation of the Bidens.

But Trump released the money only after the whistleblower report made his hold on it public and lawmakers from both parties complained. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was set to announce the investigations on CNN until the disclosure forced Trump’s hand.

Imagine that in 2011 President Barack Obama had tried to leverage the need for critical foreign aid to a promise for dirt on Mitt Romney and one of his sons. Imagine that Obama had created a shadow team to keep the ploy secret. Republicans would have been outraged, and rightly so.

Indeed, had Clinton defeated Trump, Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., was ready to introduce an article of impeachment based on her handling of emails as secretary of state. Brooks said she had “violated all rules of law.”

With Trump, it’s a different standard. Like every Republican in Congress, Brooks sees no “high crimes” on Ukraine.

Clinton’s penchant for secrecy caused her email problem. Similarly, Trump’s fragile ego caused his Ukraine problem, as it marks his entire presidency.

This weak man taunts rivals based on physical appearance. This weak man foments divisions rather than try to mend them. This weak man refuses to tell the truth if a lie makes him look better. Latest example: Trump took credit for an Apple plant in Texas that dates to 2013.

And this weak man serves Vladimir Putin, by refusing to acknowledge and push back on the dictator’s campaign to divide the West. A Senate report found that Russia also interfered in the 2016 Brexit election, which has left British politics in turmoil.

Trump probably will survive impeachment. He may win a second term. Even if he does, that weakness – and the risk that goes with it — will remain.