Trump’s Golfing Enters Frozen Ukraine Aid Saga

Newsweek reports:

White House officials struggled to set up meetings with President Donald Trump regarding frozen military aid to Ukraine because the president was golfing, according to a new report charting the events at the center of Trump’s Ukraine strategy and subsequent impeachment.

The report—published Sunday by The New York Times—details how senior administration officials tried to have Trump release hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked for the Ukrainian military by Congress. The president is expected to be tried by the Senate early next year.

More from the original report:

Mr. Trump’s demands sent shock waves through the White House and the Pentagon, created deep rifts within the senior ranks of his administration, left key aides like Mr. Mulvaney under intensifying scrutiny — and ended only after Mr. Trump learned of a damning whistle-blower report and came under pressure from influential Republican lawmakers.

In many ways, the havoc Mr. Giuliani and other Trump loyalists set off in the State Department by pursuing the investigations was matched by conflicts and confusion in the White House and Pentagon stemming from Mr. Trump’s order to withhold the aid.

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