“Under pressure over his possible impeachment, President Richard M. Nixon supposedly talked to the paintings in the White House. President Bill Clinton absently toyed with his old campaign buttons. President Trump punches out Twitter messages in the lonely midnight hour,” the New York Times reports.

“Long after his staff has gone home, long after the lights have gone out elsewhere around the capital, the besieged 45th president hunkers down in the upstairs residential portion of the Executive Mansion venting his frustration and cheering on his defenders through social media blasts.”

“No matter what some of his critics say, advisers said he genuinely does not want to be impeached, viewing it as a personal humiliation. Even in private, he accepts no blame and expresses no regret, but he rails against the enemies he sees all around him.”

New York Times: “A federal appeals court in Virginia heard arguments Thursday about whether to revive a lawsuit accusing President Trump of violating the Constitution by profiting from his hotel near the White House, in a spirited session that indicated sharp divisions among the judges over the legal consequences of the president’s conduct.”

“The three-hour hearing in Richmond was the first time that a full federal appeals court has considered the so-called emoluments or anticorruption clauses of the Constitution. Mr. Trump is the first president to be sued for violating those clauses, and so far only lower courts or appellate panels have ruled on the three cases against him.”

Politico: “Democrats are only just beginning to confront the paradox that their imminent impeachment vote creates: What happens when a remorseless president commits the same behavior that got him impeached in the first place — only this time after the House has already deployed the most potent weapon in its arsenal?”

“There’s no roadmap for Congress to handle an already-impeached president who could have as many as five years left in office. Democrats acknowledge there’s no realistic path or political will to revisit impeachment in Trump’s first term, especially with the 2020 election less than a year away.”

“But far from being deterred by impeachment, Trump appears emboldened — suggesting impeachment may not be the kind of bulwark against misconduct envisioned in the Constitution.”

CNN: “Privately, he’s stewing…. Trump is somewhat taken aback that his actions toward Ukraine are ultimately what led to his likely impeachment.”

Said one close adviser: “Frankly, I think he’s a little surprised it’s the Ukraine thing that’s done it.”

New York Times: “The White House impeachment battle begins every day shortly after sunrise, when [Trump’s] press secretary, his acting chief of staff and a group of lawyers crowd into the wood-paneled second-floor office of Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, to synthesize the latest Capitol Hill legalese. An hour or so later, another group convenes downstairs in the office of Stephanie Grisham, the press secretary, to discuss the day’s top stories. Impeachment is usually one of them.”

“Then, in an underground office, two new additions — Tony Sayegh, a former Treasury Department spokesman, and Pam Bondi, a former Florida attorney general — get to work on the job they were hired last month to do: attack the process.”