Trump won’t resign, so make him a pariah
America’s immediate problem is to prevent Donald Trump from doing more damage, both domestically and internationally. The longer-term challenge is to make sure he can never hold office again and to disgrace him even among his erstwhile supporters.
They are already having doubts, as Trump encouraged them to attack the Capitol and even promised to walk there with them but has now disavowed the mob he incited. Those are not the kind of doubts likely to have a positive impact on American politics. The diehards could become more violent in their disillusion rather than less. The white supremacist swamp from which they emerged is the greatest terrorist threat to America today.
The two constitutional means of preventing Trump from doing evil are both time-consuming and require bipartisan approval.
The 25th Amendment requires a majority of the cabinet to agree and both houses of Congress to vote by 2/3 majority. During the process however the President’s powers are delegated to the Vice President, which means Trump in the near term would be prevented from doing anything harmful. Use of the 25th Amendment would also label Trump permanently as unqualified.
Impeachment can be done quickly in the House, but the Senate is still majority Republican (the two new Georgia Senators likely won’t be seated until after Inauguration Day, due to election law requirements). Some think Trump could be impeached before then but tried in the Senate thereafter. Conviction would make him unable to run again in 2024, as he has indicated he wants to do.
House Speaker Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Schumer are threatening impeachment if Vice President Pence does not proceed with the 25th Amendment. That is a reasonable tactic under the circumstances. The Trump who yesterday read what his handlers wanted disowning the riot and pledging a peaceful transition sounded tamer. But Trump is also fabulously erratic and could easily burst the constraints and do something tragic, either domestically or internationally.
The right thing for Trump to do is resign. He is uninterested in doing the job of the President, was at least partly responsible for the insurrectionary attack on the Capitol, and has said that he will not attend Biden’s Inauguration. That was predictable, but it is also one of the well-established responsibilities of an outgoing President. If he doesn’t want to do it, he should let Vice President Pence fulfill the role.
The ultimate solution will be in court and at the polls. It will take the better part of the next decade. The rioters need to be arrested, prosecuted, and convicted. Their enablers in the Republican party–Senators Hawley and Cruz first among them, but also the 140 or so Representatives who voted to ignore the Electoral College results–need to be defeated at the polls. Trump and his supporters should be made pariahs, so that no one ever plays his game again.
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