Former U.S President Donald Trump has officially passed on the torch to President Joe Biden last week, after a period of what could be qualified as quite obstinate “resistance”. This stemmed in Trump’s unwillingness to admit his defeat, as he ceaselessly repeated on social media that he was the real winner and tried to put pressure on the electoral colleges to recover “lost” votes in his favour. The results of Trump’s attitude peaked in the attempted coup d’etat of the storming of the Capitol on the 6th of January. This act of violent civil unrest was perpetuated by his supporters and left 5 dead and dozens injured.
The main issue with Trump in this event is that he resisted sending the National Guard to stop the mob and that his words and posts on social media led to this event, some even say it was planned. This caused the House of Representatives to call for his impeachment, yet again, this time on the basis of incitement of insurrection, making Trump the only president ever in the history of the United States to be impeached not once but twice.
Trump has since then been banned from major social media platforms such as Twitter and even Pinterest, the latter leading to a surge of enamused reactions on Twitter such as “FUN FACT: Trump was too radical for Pinterest” or “donald trump being banned from pinterest is the funniest thing I’ve heard all year”.
But if he already finished his term what is the point in impeaching him? Some may ask that question and the reply is simple: to prevent him from running for president again and re-gaining access to power. The trial for his impeachment is set to begin in the Senate on the 9th of February and will result in a decision on whether or not he will be able to run again. It is delayed in such a way both sides have time to prepare their arguments and defense.
Trump’s impeachment has failed once due to the great number of Republicans in the Senate but now, with Trump’s recent behaviour it seems that they are debating separating themselves from him in order to restore their image. The person chosen to preside over the trial is also different, it is Senator Leahy who is currently the longest serving Democrat in the Senate.
Many all over the world are anxiously waiting on the results of the trial while President Biden and Vice-President Harris are getting settled in their roles in the White House. We can only hope for positive results in the trial and for President Biden to start repairing the damage sustained to the country during Trump’s Presidency. If Trump’s impeachment fails once more it is expected to see him run to office again as he said he would, but hopefully, he will not need to be impeached more than twice. Some may say twice was once too many already.
Image by haberlenet NET on Flickr.