Trump informed the Senate intelligence committee Friday of his decision to fire Michael Atkinson, according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press.

"If in five years, we will end the war, bring our people back, then I did (became president) for a reason," he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump is on the verge of acquittal by the Senate, an end to only the third presidential impeachment trial in American history but coming at the start of a tumultuous campaign for the White House.

U.S. President Donald Trump was on the brink of ending the darkest chapter of his tumultuous presidency on Monday as the U.S. Senate began the final phase of his impeachment trial that will almost certainly conclude on Wednesday with his acquittal.

The White House action could delay the book's publication if Bolton, who resigned last September -- Trump says he was fired -- is forced to revise his draft.

Former national security adviser John Bolton writes in a manuscript that Trump wanted to withhold military aid from Ukraine until it committed to helping with investigations into Democratic rival Joe Biden.

The recording contradicts the president's statements that he did not know the Giuliani associates Lev Parnas or Igor Fruman, key figures in the Ukraine investigation who were indicted last year on campaign finance charges.

NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly said on Friday that Pompeo cursed at her and repeatedly "used the F-word" in a shouted diatribe after she questioned him about Ukraine and the ousted American ambassador to Kiev during a nine-minute interview.

Senators like to float above messy politics in what’s known by some as the dignified “upper chamber,” home of Congress’ cooler heads and lofty rhetoric.

Will witnesses be allowed to testify? Will the president be acquitted? And where will Trump be during all of this, anyway?