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A new chapter was once again added to the history books through the impeachment of Donald Trump, making him the only president to have ever been impeached twice. Coming just a little over a year since Trump was first charged by the House of Representatives but acquitted by the Senate, the President once again finds him in the predicament of potential removal from office, should the Senate find him guilty. Differing from last time however, is the present renunciation from several Republicans in Congress who could vote in favor of such a scenario.

With the first impeachment trial, which levied charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress against President Trump, the outcome became relatively apparent. The Democrat-controlled House was able to impeach Trump, with a 230 vote count in favor of Trump abusing power, and a 229 count for finding him guilty of obstruction of Congress, though still not a single House Republican voting in agreement of impeachment. However it was with the Republican-controlled Senate that Trump was acquitted and able to stay in office, owed to the loyalty of the GOP that, with the exception of Senator Mitt Romney, all voted against impeachment in contrast to the Democrats who all voted for it. 

This time around though, the President’s fate is less certain as division and disdain for Trump deepen among even his own party. After months of peddling baseless election fraud claims to try and dispute President-elect and Vice President-elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s victory, which denied a sitting president a second term for the first time in nearly 30 years, the violent mob that occured on January 6th and resulted in the deaths of five people including an officer, has been laid at Trump’s feet. The terrorists who stormed the capitol, many of which have ties to White supremacist groups and are now being investigated for plots to kill elected officials, appeared to have beens spurred on by the false notion pushed by the President that the election was stolen from him, and the only path to a second term was to “fight” (a word Trump used it’s various different tenses more than 20 times during his rally that occurred mere hours before the capital was stormed). 

With the destruction and consequences of Trump’s actions now made personal to Democrats and Republicans alike, and a nation reeling on such an apparent assault on the foundation of American democracy, the second impeachment is even more grievous. Along with every Democrat in the House, 10 Republican representatives voted to impeach Trump for incitement of insurrection. From here, the Senate will have to vote on whether or not Trump is responsible for this impeachable offense. If the answer is found to be yes, Trump, who only has five days left of his presidency, will be barred from ever running again. The likelihood of such a scenario is only if 67 Senators vote to impeach, which would require 17 Republicans to join the Democrats in their near-guaranteed vote in favor. However, the potential of this, however unlikely, is still greater than that of the first impeachment. Both Ben Sasse from Arizona and Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, as well as Mitt Romney from Utah and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Kentucky are all possible Republicans who could vote for impeachment.

Throughout both his campaigns and four years in office, Trump’s time as a candidate and President have been riddled with scandals and division and has severed to sow deep discord among the American people. Should he not be impeached, Trump still faces lawsuits, owed money and legal peril, as well as isolation due to his ban from various social media platforms. The finale of Trump will be one remembered as nearly everything Trump has done will be- divisive, consequential and utterly unprecedented.