A most pertinent comment relevant to the spotlight on Donald J. Trump, the 45th president of the United States, only the third president to be impeached, came 232 years ago at the founding of the republic.

In 1788, Alexander Hamilton penned this brilliant comment in Federalist No. 68, the articles that framed our exceptional Constitution.

Noting that every obstacle was needed to prevent interference by foreign powers, then thought to be Britain and France, Hamilton wrote: "These most deadly adversaries of republican government might naturally have been expected to make their approaches from more than one quarter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils (of government). How could they better gratify this than by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the Union."

On Jan. 22, Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., brought the dangers of foreign influence into stark personal focus when he stood in the Senate and outlined an accusation of how Trump blocked U.S. military aid for Ukraine in its struggle against Russian aggression to pressure the government of Ukraine to interfere in American politics — for Trump’s political benefit.

Crow, a decorated Army Ranger in Iraq and Afghanistan, described how Trump’s holdup of this vital aid coincided with the death of a courageous 38-year-old Ukrainian soldier, Oleksandr Markiv.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Markiv was fatally wounded while fighting off Russian mercenaries, not long after Trump’s July 25 phone call with the Ukrainian leader. Crow’s recounting of the Times article on the condition of Ukrainian soldiers in their fight against Russia was compelling.

Crow also described how he and fellow Rangers in Iraq salvaged scrap metal to deal with roadside bombs because they were poorly equipped — even by U. S. standards in 2003. He contrasted that experience with how Markiv and thousands of patriotic Ukrainians fought without boots and bullets against well-armed Russian forces.

“So, when we talk about troops not getting equipment they need, it’s personal to me," Crow said. "Real people’s lives are at stake. That’s why this matters.”

Crow then noted the many respected diplomats and military leaders who testified about the need to help our allies in Europe, that Ukraine is a friend, and that Russia remains a foe. Crow concluded: “Who here will be on the right side of history?”

Not Republican senators, it seems, if they continue to fear and protect Donald Trump, a man who openly admires Russian leader Vladimir Putin and takes Putin's word over American intelligence agencies.

The focus of the impeachment trial is on presidential abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in Trump's now well-documented decisions to block that aid to Ukraine until he could force Ukraine's leaders into investigating the Bidens, a direct invitation to intervene in America.

There are two other issues of great consequence in this trial. One is the brutal Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Another is Trump’s repeated ignorance and insults of the role of professional diplomats, intelligence officials and military leaders in protecting U.S. national security.

It started during the 2016 campaign, with his savage maligning of the war record of the late John McCain and his boast that he knows “more about ISIS than the generals.” He compared U.S. intelligence agencies with Nazi Germany, and one by one, once in the White House, fired all the generals he named to senior posts because they challenged his decisions and impulsive decision-making. He repeatedly has attacked professional diplomats.

A new book, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump’s Testing of America, by Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, reveals that during a serious 2017 briefing on national security with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Trump, who avoided military service due to “bone spurs,” called our leading generals and admirals “a bunch of dopes and babies” and said in anger, “You’re all losers. ... You don’t know how to win anymore.”

It was after this meeting that then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, whose father and grandfather had been combat veterans, said about Trump: “He’s a [expletive] moron.”

This is a president?

Frederic B. Hill covered the Watergate scandal and approaching impeachment of Richard Nixon for The Baltimore Sun. He later served as foreign affairs adviser to Republican Sen. Charles McC. Mathias and conducted wargaming exercises for the Department of State.

Sam Gardiner, a U.S. Air Force officer and Vietnam veteran, taught strategy at the National Defense University and conducted wargaming exercises for the Pentagon.