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Opinion | As Donald Trump administration enters survival mode, foreign policy moves are anyone’s guess
- With impeachment and electoral survival emerging as dual threats, US president may escalate disputes with China, North Korea, Iran and even allies
- Chaotic path of Trump White House may be even more unpredictable
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Why you can trust SCMP
Politics in the United States has been a global spectacle since January 2017, but it will be nothing compared with what’s to come.
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The Donald Trump administration is quickly entering survival mode, with Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, announcing an impeachment inquiry against the US president over egregious abuses of his office.
Surprising few of his critics, Trump has conflated his personal political interests with those of the United States, using the power of his office to call on foreign countries to investigate his political opponents.
Though the spark that lit the fuse for impeachment was a remarkable whistle-blower complaint regarding the president’s improper conduct with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, more and more evidence is emerging of wrongdoing. The dam may be set to burst, drowning out the administration’s various policy agendas as survival becomes the sole objective.
Constitutionally, impeachment is designed to hold a president accountable for “high crimes and misdemeanours” committed in office. The practice has been rare throughout US history.
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