Every revelation of the White House’s interference with US policy in Ukraine suggests that Trump has misjudged the political fallout of his actions. Transcripts from private congressional hearings released earlier this week reveal a State Department subordinated to the president’s will. Testimony from former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, and former State Department adviser, Michael McKinley indicate a level of dysfunction that exceeds even the harshest assessments of Trump’s governance to date.
Ambassador Yovanovitch testified to her bewilderment at being recalled in late April after a bizarre phone call from the director general of the foreign service urging her to leave Ukraine immediately. Returning to Washington, Yovanovitch could obtain no explanation for her recall. A well respected diplomat, she had been recently asked to extend her term as ambassador. Eventually, after much evasion from her superiors, Yovanovitch learned that the president was unhappy with her and had wanted her removed a year ago: “They were worried that if I wasn’t physically out of Ukraine, that there would be some sort of either tweet or something else from the White House … and so this was to make sure that I would be treated with as much respect as possible.” McKinley testified that when he sought support for Yovanovitch from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, no fewer than three times, he was rebuffed. When Pompeo was asked about this, two days ago, he dodged the question and dismissed the impeachment probe as “noise.”
As impeachment nears its public phase it has become a complex drama with several subplots, but the bottom line is clear enough. In the Guardian, Julian Borger writes: “[I]n Ukraine and elsewhere, a shadow foreign policy has emerged, whose true goals are known to the president, his family and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. Through that channel, a discredited Ukrainian prosecutor and two obscure Florida businessmen who had become Giuliani’s sidekicks wielded more influence than the entire state department. They fought to get Yovanovitch removed and they succeeded.”
The removal of a senior diplomat because of her professional integrity is bad enough, but the White House’s hostility to the inquiry has been even more unsettling. Refusing to cooperate and impugning the motives of anyone who does so, Trump has moved beyond mere disregard of Congress and no longer bothers to conceal his contempt. When House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said transcripts of the probe’s private testimony would be released Trump tweeted: ‘‘If Shifty Adam Schiff, who is a corrupt politician who fraudulently made up what I said on the ’call,’ is allowed to release transcripts of the Never Trumpers & others that are & were interviewed, he will change the words that were said to suit the Dems purposes. Republicans should give their own transcripts.’’
Describing how “the self-compulsion of ideological thinking ruins all relationships with reality”, Hannah Arendt warned that: “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.” As the Congressional impeachment enquiry uncovers further damning evidence of his private intrigues, the fulminations of Donald Trump’s Twitter feed and the craven manner in which his enablers pretend that nothing unusual has occurred, are a stark reminder of Arendt’s insight into the current dysfunctions of the US government.
