More About Donald's Letter

The New York Times just posted an article titled "Trump Wanted to Get Something Off His Chest, and in His Letter to Pelosi He Did," and subtitled "The letter was a diatribe that played loose with facts and sometimes disregarded them outright. A former Clinton aide called it a reflection of the president's 'id'":

WASHINGTON — The letter read like a Twitter tirade published on White House stationery. The words ran together with the cadence of a Trump rally script, just before the president veers from the teleprompter. The accusations, untruths and wayward exclamation points piled up by the paragraph.

“You have cheapened the importance of the very ugly word, impeachment!” President Trump wrote in the letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday. “By proceeding with your invalid impeachment, you are violating your oaths of office, you are breaking your allegiance to the Constitution, and you are declaring open war on American Democracy.”

Five and a half pages long, signed in Sharpie and sent the afternoon before the House of Representatives was due to impeach him for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, the letter officially underscored — for the “permanent and indelible record” — how angry he had become over the prospect of becoming only the third president in history to have this happen to him.

Multiple aides said on Tuesday that the president wanted the letter to be written because he wanted to get some things off his chest. By letter’s end, he seemed to have gotten rid of all of them.

Extensive in its grievances and laced with different words for what he perceives the House is about to do to him and what its reason is for doing it — such as “assault,” “destruction” and “derangement” — the letter was a rambling diatribe that played loose with facts, sometimes disregarding them outright.

As Mr. Trump laid out a case for his belief that the Democrats have been engaged in an unlawful crusade to end his presidency, he repeated his erroneous contention that a “so-called whistle-blower” had “started this entire hoax with a false report of the phone call that bears no relationship to the actual phone call that was made.”

Even his historical analogies were problematic. Comparing impeachment to the Salem witch trials, Mr. Trump claimed that the Massachusetts women accused of witchcraft in the 1690s were treated to “more due process” than he was afforded during the inquiry. (Definitely not true.)

In an impeachment inquiry marked by reams of emphatic, eloquent and often emotional testimonies written by lawyers, Foreign Service officers and Purple Heart recipients, Mr. Trump’s letter stands out for how much it sounds like an unvarnished version of its signer: off the cuff, angry and ready to make an expletive-laden case against impeachment.

The White House has tried in recent days to focus on Mr. Trump’s accomplishments as president, but he framed his record in the context of his own victimhood.

“There are not many people who could have taken the punishment inflicted during this period of time, and yet done so much for the success of America and its citizens,” Mr. Trump wrote.

Some of the president’s closest advisers were involved in drafting the letter, but they did not include Pat A. Cipollone, the White House counsel who will play a large role in a Senate trial.

Instead, Eric Ueland, the director of the Office of Legislative Affairs, led the process, with input from Stephen Miller, the president’s top policy adviser, who often scripts many of Mr. Trump’s public remarks. Michael Williams, an adviser to Mick Mulvaney, the president’s acting chief of staff, also weighed in, and Mr. Ueland’s draft was framed over the last few days.

Former presidential advisers said documents like these were always a reflection of the person in charge. To them it seemed clear that, on the eve of impeachment, Mr. Trump was interested in speaking only to his base.

“There just doesn’t seem to be a lot of strategy,” said David Litt, a former speechwriter for President Barack Obama. “Nothing here suggests that he’s trying to talk to someone who is trying to make up his or her mind” on impeachment.

Michael Waldman, who served as a policy aide and speechwriter to President Bill Clinton during his impeachment, called the letter “a six-page screech” and said it was a representation of Mr. Trump’s “id.”

“Typically a president’s words are weighed very carefully, especially at a moment of constitutional significance,” Mr. Waldman said. “This just seemed to be a chance to change the news stories for a few hours and get it off his chest.”

On the other side of a sharply partisan lens that has divided Washington, Mr. Trump’s Republican allies in Congress felt differently. Representative Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania called the letter “very important” and urged his fellow Pennsylvanians to read it.

“It is a straightforward summary that provides an account of the unfair procedures by Democrat leadership, and the failure to substantiate any impeachable offense,” Mr. Meuser wrote. “This letter marks a historic night — the eve of the Democrats’ vote to undermine the American election process.”

The president made clear whom he blamed for it — Ms. Pelosi. He even belittled her for having said she prayed for him, “when you know this statement is not true, unless it is meant in a negative sense.”

“It is a terrible thing you are doing,” Mr. Trump wrote, “but you will have to live with it, not I!” (This is the article in its entirety.)