Trump’s season of weakness: A president who prizes strength enters key stretch in a fragile state

Washington Post logoPresident Trump, whose paramount concern long has been showing strength, has entered the most challenging stretch of his term, weakened on virtually every front and in danger of being forced from office as the impeachment inquiry intensifies.

Trump now finds himself mired in a season of weakness. Foreign leaders feel emboldened to reject his pleas or to contradict him. Officials inside his administration are openly defying his wishes by participating in the impeachment probe. Federal courts have ruled against him. Republican lawmakers are criticizing him. He has lost control over major conservative media organs. Polling shows that Americans increasingly disapprove of his job performance and support his impeachment.

And in a rare concession to his critics, Trump announced late Saturday that he no longer plans to host the Group of Seven summit of world leaders at his Florida golf club, folding after two days of intense criticism over having picked his own property as the venue for a diplomatic gathering.

View the complete October 19 article by Philip Rucker on The Washington Post website here.