US President Donald Trump. (AP)
WASHINGTON: Retribution came swiftly to those US President Donald Trump saw as having been insubordinate and disloyal to him in what he calls the “impeachment hoax.”
Lt.Col Alexander Vindman, a decorated American soldier whose riveting testimony implicated Trump in abuse of power charges during the impeachment process, was fired on Friday from the National Security Council, where he was on deputation from the Pentagon, hours after the Republican-majority US Senate exonerated the President.
Such was President Trump’s anger at the perceived betrayal that not only was Vindman escorted off the White House premises by security, but his twin brother Yevgeny, who also worked in the White House as a lawyer, was also removed.
Trump did not spare even his own friend and donor Gordon Sondland, whose appointment as ambassador to the European Union on the strength of a $ 1 million campaign donation did not hold him back from testifying that there was a Trump quid pro quo with Ukraine. Sondland was recalled from Brussels with immediate effect – fired, in othe