Of course, that bold attention-seeking is Trump's way. He has been doing it since childhood. But consider the stakes in this moment and you might agree that the decision to bash Yovanovitch with a Tweet was ill-timed and self-destructive.
"Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad," wrote the President. "She started off in Somalia, how did that go? Then fast forward to Ukraine, where the new Ukrainian President spoke unfavorably about her in my second phone call with him. It is a U.S. President's absolute right to appoint ambassadors."
Setting aside the content of the tweet, for a moment, it's vital to examine Trump's decision to comment about her in the first place. As the most powerful person on Earth, the US president, whoever he or she may be, enters every situation with outsized strength and weight. The President's attention can make others tremble and negative attention like this will evoke fear, especially in light of the rabid following he claims and their emotional commitment to him.
Put yourself in the ambassador's place. As a witness testifying before Congress, on live television, her face became recognizable to all, including millions who will regard her as the enemy of their President. Now imagine going out in public—perhaps to an airport, or even a restaurant. If you were her, would you feel safe?
Unfortunately Yovanovitch has had prior experience with political demonization of this sort. Indeed, she was called to appear before the House Committee on Intelligence because she had been subjected to a smear campaign that culminated with her sudden removal from her post as ambassador to Ukraine. Soon after, the President had his infamous July 25 phone call, where he asked the newly elected president of Ukraine for a "favor"—to investigate a conspiracy theory that would help him undermine the Russia probe--and also to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading 2020 rival.
Trump's lawyer and attack dog Rudy Giuliani may have regarded Yovanovitch as a mere obstacle to be removed because of her efforts to root out corruption in Ukraine. He and Donald Trump Jr. and some in right-wing media certainly have treated her this way, smearing her as an outspoken critic of the President. A "stooge" was how Giuliani described her. "A joker," was Trump Jr.'s term. But she instead turned out to be a formidable public servant who enjoys wide respect thanks to a long record of integrity and seriousness
This is where we get to the content of Trump's tweet, which suggested Yovanovitch was the Typhoid Mary of the diplomatic corps, spreading destruction everywhere she went. No one with any sense of the ambassador's record could think such a thing, let alone say it. In fact, throughout her public hearing Friday both Democrats and Republicans hailed her service. Indeed as she rose to leave at hearing's end, the room erupted in sustained applause.
In her 33-year career, Yovanovitch won numerous commendations and rose steadily. She worked in hot spots including Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Ukraine. Among her other postings have been Ottawa, London and Moscow. She worked at the embassy in Mogadishu in the 1990s but saying that conditions there changed because of her presence is like saying that the sun rose today because you looked out the window.
Of course, the President's purpose in tweeting about the ambassador had nothing to do with the factual record. It was arguably, as House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff implied, "witness intimidation" --coming from a person whose penchant for intimidation is well established. Witness intimidation is a crime, and Trump may have laid the foundation for a new article of impeachment for Congress to consider.
Why would the President heedlessly insert himself into the Yovanovitch hearing? The best answer, it seems, is that he knows no other way. Confronted by something he believes he must fix, he grabbed one of his hammers and went to work. The result was another self-inflicted crack in his presidency, another demonstration of his frightening limitations.
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