No, he won’t. Even if he is impeached, convicted and removed, he won’t be imprisoned. Even if he is impeached and convicted, what if he says, ‘Thank you for your opinion. I’m staying. And since you are trying to destroy America by trying to get rid of Me, I am forced to impose martial law and suspend the Constitution. Guards, arrest anyone who is against me!’?
He’ll never be actually imprisoned- but some form of house arrest can happen.
That could happen - but I suspect that once he’s impeached and convicted a lot of people will suddenly stand up to him . Number one on that list will be Vance.
That won’t happen - but it doesn’t need to. I mean, I’d like for it to happen, but it’s only necessary for two thirds of the Senate to vote to convict. Republicans don’t necessarily agree with what he does- they are just afraid to go against him (see all the ones who change their tune when they aren’t running again).If they become more afraid of backing him, that will change.
I dunno. It seems like I keep hearing “Yes, it’s bad but he hasn’t done that other thing he hasn’t done yet”. Then when he does, it’s bad, but there’s some other thing he hasn’t done yet.
That’s not what I was saying. I was poo-pooing the idea that everything Trump does raises his approval rating. It doesn’t - he’s pretty unpopular. And so far, elections when he’s this unpopular have resulted in losses for him.
I agree that this would be highly unlikely. Might a propose a more plausible scenario?
The 2026 elections go very badly for the Republicans. A massive anti-Trump wave appears, with casualty rolls from the Venezuela occupation and presidential musing about reinstating the draft leading to a massive drop in independent support for the President. 40 house and seven senate GOP seats flip to Democrats, ceding control of all of Congress. Seats in Iowa, Maine, NC, Ohio, Texas, Louisiana and Alaska are now held by Democrats, with a 54-46 edge in the chamber. An attempt to get Aileen Cannon through confirmation as a Supreme Court Justice to take Clarence Thomas’s seat in the lame duck session fails.
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The Senate Republican caucus elects Mike Lee of Utah as the new minority leader. Rumors out of Washington have him meeting for hours with Chuck Schumer, subject unknown. After the new Congress is seated, the House votes to impeach Trump for a third time. Fifteen House Republicans, twelve of whom retained their seats by less than half a percentage point each, vote with the Democrats.
Nineteen Republican-held Senate seats are up for election in 2028. After Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announces she will not run for the Senate that year, Schumer begins lobbying these senators heavily. Steve Bannon features on his podcast profiles of what he terms the “shakiest” senators in terms of their support for Donald Trump. The house of Mike Crapo, senator from Idaho and one of those who Bannon (erroneously) featured, is firebombed, fortunately while he and his family are away. Once January 20th passes, JD Vance starts to distance himself from support of the president.
Trump announces an “anti-impeachment Rally” on the Ellipse in Washington, telling his supporters “will be wild!” The rally is timed for the day projected for the House prosecutors to be finishing their arguments for conviction. The prosecutors finish their case two days early, and the Senate proceeds to a vote. Mitch McConnell is given the floor for five minutes as a personal privilege via a suspension of the rules, and makes an impassioned plea for conviction, saying “Don’t make my mistake of six years ago!” After the vote is taken, Vance is ushered in to take the oath of office. His first official act is to countermand the order that former President Trump had made to the commander of the D.C. National Guard, to enter the Senate chamber and arrest everyone inside it. (The D.C. Guard commander is later given a commendation for dragging his feet in the process of obeying this same order.)
Then we’ll remove him from office the way we removed Jefferson Davis from office.
Trump needs to remember that all of his power derives from being the legally recognized head of an existing political system. If Trump goes too far in destroying that political system, all of his power disappears with it and he’s just a fat moron with a bad toupee.
There is no indication that this will happen. The current parade of Trumpoids appearing before Congress, lying, cheating and smirking and getting no punishment except stern admonitions and frowny faces tells me that Trump’s removal from office for any reason will only happen if a magic genie grants a wish. Your response seems to be made to placate us.