Trump Faces the Ghosts of Presidents Past

It’s as if Trump took some of the biggest challenges that plagued former presidents and mushed them into a big, politically explosive ball.

A LOOMING SENATE TRIAL after a legacy-staining impeachment. Fights with Congress over the power of the executive to use military force without lawmakers’ express approval. Keeping Iran nuclear-free.

The ghosts of presidencies past are haunting President Donald Trump, who is grappling at once with several political and foreign policy crises that individually consumed the attention of previous presidents. And on top of it, Trump has to juggle them all as he seeks re-election in a deeply polarized political environment.

Trump returned from a two-week holiday stay at his Mar-a-Lago resort to a maelstrom of problems – some of them arguably self-created, his critics note. The GOP-led Senate, which is widely expected to acquit Trump of the two articles of impeachment approved by the Democratic-run House in December, was still feuding with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat who is still holding up the formal action until she sees what kind of trial the Senate plans to conduct. Continue reading.