But for two articles in the press, President Trump’s strong-arming of Ukraine would likely have worked.
The administration halted aid to Ukraine in mid-July, a week before the July 25 call in which Trump himself directly pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch two investigations that would benefit Trump politically. The first was aimed at former vice president Joe Biden, with Trump asking for a probe of a company for which Biden’s son once worked. The second was aimed at building a case for Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election. Trump didn’t use the $400 million in aid as leverage at that point, focusing instead on a visit to Washington that Zelensky was seeking.
