Trump's fate likely to be decided at the ballot box, not by Congress

AFTER the impeachment process was initiated against him in 1974, Republican President Richard Nixon did what American presidents do when they are in political trouble: he started travelling abroad a lot.

Like Democratic President Bill Clinton who also faced an impeachment fight in 1998, President Nixon recognised that one way of countering the effects of a process that was supposed to politically weaken him and eventually to oust him from office, was to demonstrate to the American people that he remained in charge. He was showing the people that, unlike his opponents who were creating petty political squabbles, he was taking care of the nation and protecting its interests.

What better way to achieve this than by producing a televised international spectacle in which the free world is being greeted by huge crowds in the Middle East, hailed by America's allies during a Nato summit in Brussels, or shaking hands with the Soviet leaders in Moscow?