“You people with this phony Emoluments Clause.” Yes, we’ve reached the point in the story where the president is describing the Constitution as fake news as he vents over his decision to pull plans to host the G-7 at his own resort. The move came as Trump learned that impeachment-weary Republicans were tired of defending him on so many fronts. The hotel cancellation policy came shortly after Mick Mulvaney explained his boss’s motivation: “At the end of the day, he still considers himself to be in the hospitality business.” (Tell that to the kids in cages.)

+ This leaves the GOP to focus its defense of Trump squarely on the impeachment proceedings and the Ukrainian scandal. Here’s the latest from CNN and WaPo.

+ Regardless of the piling up of evidence, the administration’s own release of incriminating evidence, and the public confessions from both the president and his chief of staff, don’t expect the GOP defense to crater easily. “Of all Republican voters, two subgroups stand out for their unwavering support of Trump: those who primarily get their news from Fox, and white evangelical Christians.” The Atlantic: Nothing Will Persuade White Evangelicals to Support Impeachment. (The one good thing about this era is everyone finally understands what irony means.)

+ “So, they said he was on the phone with some guy because he wanted to get dirt on Biden, but I don’t know if they got any.” WaPo heads to Staten Island, “a swath of the country as good a place as any to gauge how a defining moment in American democracy is playing out.”