What We Learned From the Ukrainian Transcript

President Trump, in order to exonerate himself of any wrongdoing in his conversation with President-Elect Zelensky of Ukraine, has released the transcript of the call. This will be a live read of sorts with what we learn along the way.

1. Foreign leaders have learned how to manipulate Trump: lavish him with praise. Zelensky wasted no time in flagellating the praise-desperate Trump, saying he had “learned a lot from him” and parroting Trump’s now laughable campaign slogan of “draining the swamp.”
2. The President apparently regularly trashes our allies in conversations with other leaders. Based on the exchange it seems he was looking for more praise from Zelensky: “We do a lot for the Ukraine…much more than the European countries are doing.”
3. Trump lays the groundwork for quid pro quo early in the conversation: “The United States has been very good to the Ukraine. I wouldn’t say it’s reciprocal necessarily…”
4. Trump first asked Zelensky to investigate Crowdstrike, the U.S.-based cybersecurity firm that conducted investigations into the hack of the DNC servers in relation to the 2016 election interference. So we know that the President is essentially asking a foreign country to investigate a U.S. company chosen by the FBI. He ended the nonsensical request with “Whatever you can do, it’s very important that you do that if possible.”
5. On page four, after a similarly rambling intro about a prosecutor in the Ukraine, comes Trump’s request that President Zelensky use his powers as President to investigate Hunter Biden. For more on the prosecutor and the background involving Biden’s son read here, but the important part is that the transcript clearly shows that Trump is asking Zelensky to investigate him: “There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you could do with the Attorney General would be great.”
6. Zelensky pretty much immediately agreed to play ball, assuring Trump multiple times that he would move forward with the investigation into the Bidens and that he would personally oversee it.
7. Trump takes the agreement and says he will put Guliani and Barr in contact with Zelensky.

If you would like to read the full Ukraine call transcript thing you can do that here.

Why Trump felt this would exonerate him is anyone’s guess, as Trump clearly asked the President of a foreign country to launch an investigation into his political opponent. One would have to be hopelessly naive to believe that this was for any reason other than gaining dirt, something he enjoyed receiving and actively courted in the 2016 election.

I do not believe that any of Trump’s hardcore supporters will accept his guilt or even acknowledge that it is a bad thing for American democracy to have a sitting President using his obvious influence to persuade foreign powers to dig up dirt on his opponents. But then again, we are talking about people who believe that he was chosen by God or is a courageous deep-state freedom fighter battling a secret pedophilic satanic cult. Personally I am ready to treat both factions as demonstrably insane and not really pay attention to their political opinions or leanings.

For the rest of the country, this is clearly a pattern. Trump has already knowingly accepted the help of a foreign country in bringing down his political rival in 2016, has openly stated he would accept such help again if it were offered and not inform the FBI, and he is now on record not just accepting but openly asking for a foreign leader to investigate his biggest political rival.

Trump’s support from swing voters and centrist Republicans has been eroding steadily. The constant stream of ridiculous side shows which embarrass the nation and the office of the President (hurricane predictions, buying Greenland, and other fits of obvious madness) is beginning to take its toll. The laughable notion that our current economy, which began its recover 8 years prior to Trump taking office, is 100% Trump’s doing is wearing thin.

After a while, everyone gets sick of a troll. Trump is nothing but a troll and has never been anything more. We know now his greatest success in real estate was pretending to be successful in real estate. We know he regularly engaged in fraud prior to being President. The few Republicans left who have not sold their soul to Trump have an easy choice, and the others have to face the question of whether they should try to retrieve what’s left and create a new center, or go down with the ship. It will be interesting to observe.