From his New York skyscraper, President Donald Trump should have felt on top of the world. Instead, the scandal over his alleged shakedown of Ukraine’s president for dirt on an opponent has brought him to the lowest point of his presidency — and at risk of crashing further.
The former real estate tycoon and reality TV performer returned to Washington on Thursday as only the fourth president to face an impeachment inquiry.
On Twitter, he raged at the “hoax” and “scam.” Aides insisted that the story was meaningless.
But in reality, this was the week when Trump was confronted in brutal fashion by the limits of his power, or even his ability to project that power.
Tuesday saw him boasting in front of the United Nations about what he called a historic peak in American military and economic might.
Yet diplomats in the UN hall were all too aware of his meager diplomatic victories and mounting domestic troubles.
Iran remains a combustible, unsolved affair, with frantic efforts by French President Emmanuel Macron to facilitate a meeting between Trump and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani coming to naught.