Claiming an allegiance to the Oval Office and future U.S. presidents that come after him as the only thing stopping him, President Donald Trump issued a series of tweets Tuesday in which he said he would otherwise "love" to have top aides and cabinet members--including acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, outgoing Energy Secretary Rick Perry, former National Security Advisor John Bolton, and "many others"--testify before Congress as part of the ongoing impeachment inquiry by House Democrats.
"What has happened to me should never happen to another President!" Trump tweeted as he blamed "D.C. Wolves and Fake News Media" for putting too much stock into a federal judge's ruling on Monday that former White House counsel Don McGahn must submit to a congressional subpoena issued earlier this year.
"I am fighting for future Presidents and the Office of the President. Other than that, I would actually like people to testify," Trump tweeted. "Don McGahn's respected lawyer has already stated that I did nothing wrong. John Bolton is a patriot and may know that I held back the money from Ukraine because it is considered a corrupt country, & I wanted to know why nearby European countries weren't putting up money also."
Trump then added: "I would love to have Mike Pompeo, Rick Perry, Mick Mulvaney and many others testify about the phony Impeachment Hoax. It is a Democrat Scam that is going nowhere but, future Presidents should in no way be compromised."
Many sarcastically dismissed Trump's latest assertion:
Meanwhile, given that Trump continues to actively block his top lieutenants from testifying in the impeachment probe, Eric Columbus, a former Department of Justice appointee under the Obama administration and former staff attorney for the Senate Judiciary Committee, countered the president by saying: "If Trump actually wanted advisers to testify (he doesn't) but just wanted to preserve authority for future POTUSes (he doesn't), there's a simple solution: strike a deal for advisers to testify *without* subpoena, thus preserving argument that they can't be *compelled* to do so."
