Fight Club:As House Democrats issued their first impeachment inquiry subpoena to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, President Trump and his 2020 campaign are already in full fight mode.

   They are raising money while denouncing the Ukraine whistleblower, Democrats, the press, and just about anyone who says Trump did something wrong in his telephone conversation with the president of Ukraine.

  In the midst of it all, Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, who was named in the whistleblower complaint, resigned.

  Trump tweeted in his defense, “If that perfect phone call with the President of Ukraine Isn’t considered appropriate, then no future President can EVER again speak to another foreign leader!”

  In that conversation Trump asked Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, based on a rumor that they had done something corrupt.

   The rough transcript released by the White House reveals what could be an impeachable offense; leaning on a foreign leader for help winning a US election. The “Trump War Room” tweeted, “TRUTH: “it is hard to accuse Mr. Trump of a cover-up when he is the one who unilaterally declassified the transcript of his call with the Ukrainian president as well as the official complaint by the hearsay gossip ‘whistleblower.'”

  But the resignation of Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker indicates internal dissent. After Trump’s demands about the Bidens, Volker was left as the middleman trying to manage the situation with the Ukraine President. 

  Taking the fight online, Trump’s campaign posted a video ad saying that while he was in office Biden threatened to withhold aid money if Ukraine didn’t fire a corrupt prosecutor — that’s true. The Trump ad says, “But when President Trump asks Ukraine to investigate corruption the Democrats want to impeach him and their media lapdogs fall in line.”

  It goes on, “They lost the election, now they want to steal this one.”

  Trump also appears to be lining up financing for the legal fight. Eric Trump announced that the family has already collected $15 million. And the President met yesterday with Wayne LaPierre, the head of the National Rifle Association. LaPierre offered financial help in exchange for Trump backing off any new gun laws.

Among the Guys:President Trump told two Russian officials during a 2017 meeting in the Oval Office that he was unconcerned about Russian election meddling because the US does the same, The Washington Post reports. Trump’s previously unreported comments were made during an infamous meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in which Trump blew the cover of an intelligence source on the Islamic State. Access to the memorandum summarizing the meeting was then limited to prevent Trump’s remarks from going public, the paper reports.

The Big Blow:Far out in the Atlantic, Hurricane Lorenzo has become “one of the largest and most powerful hurricanes of record for the tropical central Atlantic,” according to the National Hurricane Center.

  Now blowing at 140 mph, Lorenzo became a Category 4 storm yesterday.  It’s most likely to hit the Azores first.

  The storm’s clouds span more than 1,000 miles — roughly the distance from Washington, DC, to Miami. 

The Bulletin Board: A federal judge yesterday blocked the Trump administration’s new regulation that would allow authorities to lengthen the detainment of immigrant children who have entered the country without their parents. Generally it’s been understood that the kids would not be held longer than 20 days. — Owners of vaping businesses in Massachusetts are fighting back against the four-month ban on vaping products decreed by the state’s governor. Owners say they’re being put out of business. Most vaping-related injuries and illnesses are caused by marijuana-based products, the Centers for Disease Control says. — Thirty-five-year-old Princeton graduate Thomas Gilbert Jr. was sentenced yesterday in New York to 30 years to life in prison for the 2015 murder of his father. Gilbert, who apparently was unable to hold down a job, killed his father after his $1,000 weekly allowance was eliminated. 

Apostrophe Now:President Trump, who acts as his own editor and fact checker, is angry with CNN for editing hm. He tweeted, “To show you how dishonest the LameStream Media is, I used the word Liddle’, not Liddle, in discribing Corrupt Congressman Liddle’ Adam Schiff. Low ratings @CNN purposely took the hyphen out and said I spelled the word little wrong. A small but never ending situation with CNN!”

   Uhh, Mr. President, most people discribe that liddle mark as an apostrophe and the hyphen is what’s missing between “never” and “ending.”

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