Trump returned to Twitter shortly after Air Force One took off en route to London to complain again about the timing of a Judiciary Committee hearing on impeachment scheduled for Wednesday.

“Heading to Europe to represent our Country and fight hard for the American People while the Do Nothing Democrats purposely scheduled an Impeachment Hoax hearing on the same date as NATO. Not nice!” Trump tweeted.

His tweet included a 40-second video of Air Force Once taking off at Joint Base Andrews.

As he left the White House on Monday en route to London, Trump complained that the Judiciary Committee is holding its first impeachment hearing Wednesday while he will be attending a gathering of NATO leaders.

“The Democrats, the radical leftist Democrats, the do-nothing Democrats decided when I’m going to NATO — this was set up a year ago — that when I’m going to NATO, that was the exact time,” Trump told reporters. “This is one of the most important journeys that we make as president, and for them to be doing this and saying this and putting impeachment on the table, which is a hoax to begin with. …”

Asked why he isn’t sending his lawyers to Wednesday’s hearing, Trump said: “Because the whole thing is a hoax. Everybody knows it.”

Trump also claimed, without citing evidence, that Democrats are “getting killed in their own districts” for pursuing impeachment.

There is no recent public polling that backs up his claim on a broad basis.

“I think it’s going to be a tremendous boon for the Republicans,” Trump said of his potential impeachment. “Republicans have never, ever been so committed as they are now and so united. It’s really a great thing in some ways, but in other ways it’s a disgrace. It’s a disgrace.”

Shortly before he was scheduled to leave the White House, Trump returned to Twitter to question the fairness of Wednesday’s scheduled Judiciary Committee hearing on impeachment.

Under current plans, four constitutional scholars — three chosen by Democrats, one by Republicans — are expected to testify on the standards for impeachment.

“The Do Nothing Democrats get 3 Constitutional lawyers for their Impeachment hoax (they will need them!), the Republicans get one,” Trump tweeted. “Oh, that sounds fair!”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) declined to discuss impeachment during a news conference in Madrid on Monday, saying she has a rule not to talk about the president “in a negative way” when on congressional travel abroad.

Pelosi appeared before reporters at the 2019 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. After opening remarks from her and several colleagues on the trip, Pelosi was asked by a reporter what lawmakers from swing districts heard about impeachment during the Thanksgiving recess.

“Well, I appreciate your question,” Pelosi responded. “If you have another one, you may want to ask it because we aren’t here to talk about impeachment or the president of the United States.”

She cited a rule for congressional delegations: “We don’t talk about the president in a negative way, and we save that for home. But nonetheless, we’re here to talk positively about our agenda to save the planet for future generations. And we in our Congress right now are doing many more things other than reviewing the possibility of impeaching a president.”

Trump has not shown similar restraint in criticizing Pelosi while traveling overseas.

He derided her as “a disaster” and “Nervous Nancy” during a June television interview conducted at the site of a solemn ceremony in France commemorating the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.

Trump seized on an interview of Zelensky published Monday to declare that the impeachment inquiry should be over.

Zelensky issued a fresh denial during the interview with Time magazine and three of Europe’s leading publications that he and Trump ever discussed a decision to withhold U.S. military aid to Ukraine in the context of a “quid pro quo” involving political favors. But Zelensky also questioned the fairness of Trump’s decision to freeze the aid a time when Ukraine is trying to get back territory seized by Russia from Ukraine in 2014.

“Look, I never talked to the president from the position of a quid pro quo. That’s not my thing,” Zelensky said. “I don’t want us to look like beggars. But you have to understand. We’re at war. If you’re our strategic partner, then you can’t go blocking anything for us. I think that’s just about fairness. It’s not about a quid pro quo. It just goes without saying.”

In a tweet, Trump characterized the interview somewhat differently.

“Breaking News: The President of Ukraine has just again announced that President Trump has done nothing wrong with respect to Ukraine and our interactions or calls,” Trump wrote. “If the Radical Left Democrats were sane, which they are not, it would be case over!”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that he considers it “very unfortunate” that the House Judiciary Committee has scheduled its first impeachment hearing on a day that Trump will be in London meeting with other NATO leaders.

“It’s a long tradition that we support presidents when they travel overseas to do their work,” Pompeo said during an interview on Fox News.

He called the planned hearing an effort by Democrats “to distract America’s president from his important mission overseas.”

“These are some of our most important allies and partners in keeping the American people safe and secure,” Pompeo said. “It’s very unfortunate.”

Rep. Douglas A. Collins (Ga.), the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, made a public plea Monday for Democrats to allow Republicans to call at least one more witness when the panel convenes Wednesday for its first hearing on impeachment.

Under current plans, four constitutional scholars — three chosen by Democrats, one by Republicans — are expected to testify on the standards for impeachment.

“We’re trying to figure out if we’re going to get more than one witness,” Collins said during an appearance on Fox News.

He also complained that the process is being rushed and that many details remain unclear.

“It’s about like me telling y’all, ‘I want you to go into the kitchen, I want you to bake me something,’” Collins said. “And you say, ‘Well, what to do I have to bake?’ I say, ‘It doesn’t matter. Just go bake something.’ ”

Trump is scheduled to leave the White House at 9:45 a.m. en route to London, where NATO member countries are holding a quick summit this week.

In a tweet over the weekend, Trump noted that the House Judiciary Committee plans to hold a hearing on impeachment on Wednesday while he is taking part in meetings with other leaders in the venerable military alliance, which is marking its 70th anniversary this year.

“I will be representing our Country in London at NATO, while the Democrats are holding the most ridiculous Impeachment hearings in history,” Trump wrote. “Read the Transcripts, NOTHING was done or said wrong! The Radical Left is undercutting our Country. Hearings scheduled on same dates as NATO!”

Trump’s departure from the White House will be closely watched by reporters. When leaving, he frequently stops to take questions and could weigh in on the impeachment process.

A report by the House Intelligence Committee on Trump’s dealings with Ukraine is expected to circulate among panel members on Monday in advance of a scheduled meeting on Tuesday to approve it.

The report comes after closed-door depositions with 17 government witnesses and televised public hearings with many of those officials.

The report is expected to be forwarded to the House Judiciary Committee for consideration of articles of impeachment against Trump. The committee has scheduled a Wednesday hearing to consider the historical and constitutional standards for impeachment.

On Sunday night, White House counsel Pat A. Cipollone told the committee in a five-page letter that Trump would not participate in its first impeachment hearing.

The invitation from Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) “does not begin to provide the President with any semblance of a fair process,” Cipollone wrote.

Four constitutional scholars — three chosen by Democrats, one by Republicans — are expected to testify on the standards for impeachment.

Amid a spate of morning tweets, Trump sought to highlight the lack of Republican support in Congress for his impeachment by quoting “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace.

“It is clear that there is none of the bipartisan support that Speaker Pelosi said for months was essential for Impeachment,” Trump quoted Wallace as saying.

In a March interview with The Washington Post, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that “impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path because it divides the country.”

In a subsequent tweet Monday morning, Trump quoted another television host, Maria Bartiromo of the Fox Business Network, calling the impeachment process “unfair.”

Trump later quoted former independent counsel Robert W. Ray as saying Trump doesn’t have to participate in the impeachment proceedings, which he called “a political effort,” according to Trump’s tweet.

“Democrats are getting ‘killed’ in their home districts. 2020!” Trump added in his own words. He provided no evidence for the assertion.

Zelensky issued a fresh denial in an interview published Monday that he and Trump ever discussed a decision to withhold U.S. military aid to Ukraine in the context of a “quid pro quo” involving political favors.

But during the interview with Time magazine and three of Europe’s leading publications, Zelensky also questioned the fairness of Trump’s decision to freeze the aid a time when Ukraine is trying to get back territory seized by Russia from Ukraine in 2014.

“Look, I never talked to the president from the position of a quid pro quo. That’s not my thing,” Zelensky said. “I don’t want us to look like beggars. But you have to understand. We’re at war. If you’re our strategic partner, then you can’t go blocking anything for us. I think that’s just about fairness. It’s not about a quid pro quo. It just goes without saying.”

Zelensky also pushed back during the interview on Trump’s repeated claims of corruption in Ukraine.

“The United States of America is a signal, for the world, for everyone,” he said. “When America says, for instance, that Ukraine is a corrupt country, that is the hardest of signals. It might seem like an easy thing to say, that combination of words: Ukraine is a corrupt country. Just to say it and that’s it. But it doesn’t end there. Everyone hears that signal. Investments, banks, stakeholders, companies, American, European, companies that have international capital in Ukraine, it’s a signal to them that says, ‘Be careful, don’t invest.’ Or, ‘Get out of there.’”

Lock him up!

That was the message of the U.S. Senate in February 1934 when William MacCracken Jr., a Washington aviation industry lawyer, refused to cooperate with a Senate investigation into the awarding of federal airmail contracts. MacCracken was the last person arrested under Congress’s “inherent contempt power,” which authorizes the Senate and the House to order their sergeant-at-arms to arrest witnesses who defy congressional orders.

Some Democrats have urged that the arrest powers be dusted off and used against administration officials and others who are defying the House Democrats’ impeachment investigation of President Trump, which resumes this week.

The lone tweet appeared Sunday night on a profile bearing the name of former FBI attorney Lisa Page.

“I’m done being quiet,” the tweet read.

In the roughly two years since Page made national headlines after politically charged text messages between her and Peter Strzok, then a senior FBI agent, were released, the lawyer has refrained from publicly addressing the events that catapulted her into the center of a political firestorm and made her a repeated target of Trump’s ire.

Now, in a wide-ranging interview, the 39-year-old has slammed Trump for his “sickening” attacks against her and revealed how she has struggled to keep her life together.

“I had stayed quiet for years hoping it would fade away, but instead it got worse,” Page told the Daily Beast in her first public interview, which was published Sunday. “It had been so hard not to defend myself, to let people who hate me control the narrative. I decided to take my power back.”