Day 1,056: Unsurprising: impeachment making Trump even more miserable in private

The overwhelmingly likelihood of impeachment has scrambled Donald Trump’s already frazzled brain.

In public, he’s as unhinged as ever, ranting and raving like a lunatic. He’s spreading delusions, conspiracy theories and hate at an unprecedented rate. His faux bravado about the prospect of impeachment couldn’t be more apparent, as he rage-tweeted more than 60 times over a three-hour window Wednesday just days after topping triple digits.

In private, he’s stripped down, sulking and bothering his aides about it for huge chunks of the day.

“I think he’s been preparing for this for some time,” a Trump adviser said, adding the President has appeared somewhat taken aback that his actions toward Ukraine are ultimately what led to his likely impeachment.

“Frankly, I think he’s a little surprised it’s the Ukraine thing that’s done it,” the adviser said.

Trump still views impeachment through a serious lens. He does not want to be part of a notorious group of presidents who have been impeached, a bracket that includes Bill Clinton, whose own impeachment Trump has brought up repeatedly and critically in the past, saying it’s what people remember most about Clinton’s time in office. Trump has said he does not want his own legacy to face a similar fate.

Trump regularly peppers aides over how impeachment is polling. While some of those aides have tried to argue the potential political benefits of impeachment, Trump has still privately griped about going through it.

And like during other moments of crisis, Trump is fixated on how the news media is portraying him.

“The coverage bugs him,” a Trump campaign adviser said.

There’s a certain oddness and sad irony to Trump lamenting the idea of being impeached as historically significant and simultaneously believing that extorting a foreign nation to gin up an investigation into a political foe isn’t a big deal.

It reverts to Trump’s typical pattern in life: caring about the sizzle (how he’s viewed) far more than the steak (what he did wrong).

1,056 days in, 406 to go

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