Impeachment 2.0

President Donald Trump was impeached for the second time on January 13, 2021.

Situational Synopsis

Donald J. Trump will go down in history as the only United States President, so far, to be impeached twice, the first time being in 2019. After years filled with lying and deceit and being the primary catalyst of the Capitol’s insurrection on January 6th, our lawmakers had no choice but to act. On January 13th, 2021, President Donald Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives. 

While many of President Trump’s Allies have considered this a final chance to attack the president, non-Trump supporters feel it is necessary. That he should be held accountable for his actions, and it could lead to him never being able to hold office again. He would also lose many of the privileges held by former presidents if more than two-thirds of the Senate vote to convict him. 

Many feel that because Donald Trump will be leaving office in a few days, it would be a waste of taxpayer money and time to impeach him and convict him. Especially with the fact that Mitch McConnell, the Republican Majority Leader for the Senate, will not call the senate back in early for a trial. So, the trial to convict Donald Trump will happen after he has already left office. While this will not technically remove him from office, like it would have if he were convicted back in 2019, it will cost him a great deal. Some of the benefits he will lose, if convicted, are his pension of $219,000 per year, costs relating to the transition from office, yearly travel expenses, and he would no longer have lifetime Secret Service protection. It could also prevent him from running for president again, in 2024, something he is considering, according to a rumor spreading through Washington D.C.. 

Public Relations Correlation

President Donald Trump is known for his outlandish attacks on social media and during press conferences. Since losing as the incumbent, he has gone full out on attacking President-Elect Joe Biden, has refused to concede, and is trying to convince the country that it was a faulty election. While this was proven to be false, and it has been said, by officials, that the election was more secure than any other election in this country’s history, that did not stop Trump’s attacks on Twitter or his speeches at rallies. His speech at rallies and calls for protests on social media has been blamed for inciting what happened on January 6th, 2021.

 Since being impeached by the House of Representatives, he has remained mostly silent. One of the reasons for this being he has been banned from most social media platforms. Among others, Twitter says that President Trump violated their terms of use by inciting the insurrection and future threats of violence. They do not want him to be represented on their platforms or to make people think this is what their platforms stand for. Government agencies do not own them, so they can block anyone on their platform without it being considered a violation of a person’s freedom of speech, even if that claim is made. While there is disagreement, some free-speech experts said that it is too little too late and that he could have been banned sooner.    

He is still president, and he has a press secretary and the ability to speak to the press whenever he desires. He is choosing to remain silent on the matter. If one can call it that, this PR tactic is inciting more anger and confusion all over the country. Making it seem as if the president has already left the job. While his lawyer Rudolph Giuliani may already be working on a defense for his coming trial with the senate, there is not much he can do besides spreading more lies. However, what is there really to say? How can Trump or Giuliani defend his actions? 

Compare & Contrast

Comparing soon-to-be former President Donald Trump’s impeachment to anything else is tricky. No president in this country’s modern history has failed to concede, let alone be impeached twice, once for inciting an insurrection as well as trying to interfere with the democratic process. While no president has been convicted or removed from office by the Senate, after being impeached by the House of Representatives, that may change with Donald Trump. He may also be the First President to attempt to pardon himself from his crimes.  

President Donald Trump is the most Polarizing person in U.S. political history. He acts unlike any other political figure we have seen before. He is continuously creating compromising situations for himself and the United States. While inciting an insurrection is unlike anything a United States President has done in the past, so is most of what Donald Trump has done during his tenure.

Donald Trump is not the first President to be impeached. That honor went to President Andrew Jackson in 1868. He was impeached and nearly convicted by the Senate, falling one vote short of two-thirds. One could say that President Richard Nixon would have been impeached and then convicted had he not resigned and then been pardoned by Gerald Ford in 1974. President Bill Clinton in 1998 was impeached for perjury but was not found guilty by the Senate, thus continuing his presidency. President Donald Trump will most likely be out of office when his impeachment trial in the Senate occurs, which means that the trial will not remove him from office. It will limit his perks as a former President and prevent him from running for a second term in the future. According to  Representative Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), that is true. He should be held accountable for his actions, and like many have been saying for years, he is not acting presidential, and his actions are just further proof that he should not be President now, nor should he be President again in the future. 

Personal Reflection & Closing Remarks

Regardless of what side of the political spectrum one falls on, it should be clear, Donald Trump is in the wrong. He deserves the consequences of his actions and should be held accountable.

 It has been a long and dangerous road with President Donald Trump. Many Americans lived in fear of what was to become of this country. He seemed to undo many of the previous administration’s great work, alienated some of our strongest allies, and rubbed elbows with some of our biggest threats. From his countless lies to the American public, taunts to world leaders, his mishandling of the pandemic, and spreading of misinformation about COVID-19 and the 2020 election, I, along with many others, am left feeling that Donald Trump must be held accountable for his actions. While he may not face punishment for all of his crimes and wrongdoings, he can at least be tried for his blatant incitement of an insurrection that he hoped would interrupt the democratic process.

 It took hours before The Capitol was safe. The House and Senate could finish their vote to affirm President-Elect Joseph R. Biden and Vice-President Elect Kamala D. Harris’ victory. President Trump would not condemn the insurrectionists; in one of his speeches, he addressed the men and women storming The Capitol and calmly told them to go home. He is quoted saying, “We love you. You’re very special,” he had no harsh words or threats of arrest, unlike his Tweets and speeches regarding the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.  

Since the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s impeachment announcement, Trump has remained relatively silent on the matter, probably for the best. There are credible threats of armed protests to come on inauguration day in all 50 states. President Trump should not incite any more anger and hate than he already has.