Since taking office for the second time, President Trump has engaged in a number of actions that critics have described as unconstitutional and/or unlawful. While Rep. Al Green of Texas is currently drafting articles of impeachment that are specific to President Trump’s stated intention to occupy the Gaza Strip, the forced displacement of the Palestinian people is only one of a number of potential grounds for impeaching President Trump at this point:
Pardons of Violent January 6th Insurrectionists
As President, Donald Trump has the power to pardon people, but from his very first day in office has chosen to abuse said power and undermine the due process of law. Since taking office, he has pardoned more than 1,500 January 6th defendants, commuted 14 sentences, and ordered the Department of Justice to drop the cases against all remaining January 6th defendants. His pardons and commutations were not narrowly tailored to the non-violent January 6th defendants, and were so broad as to absolve more than 400 insurrectionists who charged with committing violent crimes against law enforcement officers. President Trump’s actions effectively blocked our nation’s ability to hold those who participated in the January 6th attack on Congress accountable for their actions, and have also served to protect Trump himself from investigation into the role he played in that fateful day.
President Trump has also pardoned 23 anti-abortion protesters, signaling a willingness to undermine the efforts of state and local law enforcement officials to hold anti-abortion protesters accountable for committing violent acts on doctors, patients, and reproductive-health clinics. In doing so, President Trump has not only waged a direct assault on the reproductive rights of women in this country, but has also directly attacked state’s rights guaranteed under the 10th Amendment.
Forced Removal of Palestinians from Gaza Strip
President Trump has stated his intent for the United States to unlawfully occupy the Gaza strip, forcibly remove the Palestinian population that lives there, and redevelop the land for financial profit. Such forcible deportations and resettlement of a civilian population is a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention, which the United States has been a party to for more than 75 years.
Rep. Al Green of Texas has responded to Trump’s stated intentions by announcing he will be drafting articles of impeachment related to this offense.
The findings of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report on Trump’s efforts to unlawfully retain power following the outcome of the 2020 election.
While there is a long-standing Department of Justice policy that prohibits of the indictment of a sitting President, there is a strong argument to be made for impeaching President Trump in relation to his unprecedented efforts to unlawfully retain power after losing the 2020 election and his unlawful retention of classified documents after leaving office. While a significant amount of the information contained in special counsel Jack Smith’s report was publicly available prior to the 2024 general election, and an argument could be made that the interest and right the American people to vote supersedes the importance of the Report’s conclusions, there is also an argument to be made that because the report was not published until January, 2025, the American people were systematically prevented from having a complete picture of the President’s crimes until after the voting process was complete. If the contents of Smith’s report are accurate, as he put it, “the Principles compelled prosecution. Indeed, Mr. Trump’s cases represented ones “in which the offense [was] the most flagrant, the public harm the greatest, and the proof the most certain.” While the Department of Justice policy arguably immunizes the President against indictment based on the contents of Jack Smith’s final report, there is a strong argument to made that the President is not immune from an impeachment inquiry into the contents of a report alleging criminal culpability that was published several weeks after his election.
Dismantling Independent Government Oversight
Since taking office, President Trump has abused his power by unlawfully terminating 17 duly appointed inspectors general who served as nonpartisan public servants charged with preventing government waste, fraud and abuse. A number of these inspectors general were terminated during or after their agencies has conducted investigations into companies owned by Elon Musk, who had donated more than $260 million to PACs supporting Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign. Trump also signed an executive order pausing almost all enforcement of a decades-old U.S. anti-bribery law known as at the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which makes it illegal for both U.S. firms and foreign companies with a U.S. connection to bribe foreign officials. As a consequence, businesses owned by Trump, his family and his allied will be able to bribe foreign governments without oversight. President Trump fired the National Labor Relation Board’s (NLRB) General Counsel and one Democratic NLRB Board Member, thereby leaving the NLRB without the ability to assemble a quorum and adjudicate cases. This, too, was much to Musk’s benefit, as the NLRB was pursuing 24 investigations into Musk-owned businesses. Likewise, President Trump has taken significant steps to shut down or significantly reduce the staff at a number of other watchdog agencies, including the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. These actions not only demonstrate a blatant abuse of power, but also appear to be strong evidence of corruption.
Refusing to Adhere to Court Orders
The Trump Administration has refused to comply with a number of court orders, including the release of billions of congressionally appropriated foreign aid payments, an order prohibiting the Office of Management and Budget from freezing federal assistance, an order requiring the testimony of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s Charles Ezell regarding the termination of thousands of federal employees, and a court orders related to the illegal deportation of hundreds of alleged gang members.
Depriving Citizens of Birthright Citizenship
Shortly after taking office for the second time, President Trump signed an Executive Order designed to deprive U.S. citizens of birthright citizenship, a right that was enshrined in the U.S. Constitution more than 150 years ago through the passage of the 14th Amendment. While a court order has stayed President Trump’s executive order, Congress should still hold President Trump accountable for his blatant attack on the Constitutionally-protected rights of American citizens.
Unconstitutionally Usurping Congress’ Powers
President Trump has usurped Congress’ legislative authority and power through his creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.) in violation of the Advice and Consent clause of the U.S. Constitution, and since the creation of said office has used it in defiance of both Congress and the judiciary to block the distribution of trillions of dollars that had been previously appropriated by Congress under the Taxing Clause and Appropriations Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Blocking Efforts to Secure U.S. Elections
Congress needs to investigate President Trump for allegedly engaging in unlawful, corrupt practices during his 2024 election campaign, including violating campaign finance laws, offering tax and regulatory favors to industries that contributed to his campaign or super PACs, concealing legal services payments, unlawfully coordinating with super PACs that supported his candidacy, appointing high-dollar donors to key administrative positions, facilitating and accepting unlawful campaign contributions, and spreading dangerous misinformation. Even more concerning, the Trump administration ordered the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to halt all election security work, fired 130 CISA cybersecurity professionals, and also disbanded the FBI task force assigned to investigate unlawful foreign influence in U.S. elections.
Unconstitutionally usurping local and state authority
The Trump Administration issued a memorandum requiring state and local authorities to comply with the Administration’s anti-immigration enforcement commands in blatant disregard for the rights reserved to the states under the 10th Amendment. By threatening local official with prosecution for non-compliance, the Trump Administration has not only attempted to unconstitutionally commandeer local and state authorities, but such threats could have a chilling effect on state and local authorities by interfering with and undermining their ability to determine how to best serve their communities.
Seeking Retribution Against Perceived Adversaries
President Trump has abused his power by unlawfully firing hundreds of nonpartisan career federal employees, including FBI agents, DOJ attorneys, and others who were involved in the investigation and prosecution of the insurrectionists who attacked Congress on January 6th. Trump’s actions also included unlawfully investigating attorneys and other federal officials who Trump perceived as his political enemies, including General Mark A. Milley, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci. These unlawful investigations, prosecutions and firings have strongly undermined the independence of America’s intelligence agencies, law enforcement agencies, and other federal agencies.
Receiving Foreign and Domestic Emoluments
The Domestic and Foreign Emoluments Clauses of the Constitution prohibits the U.S. President from exploiting his position as the President for personal profit. This clause was designed to safeguard against corruption. However, since taking office, President Trump has refused to relinquish his ownership stake in his various companies, and stands to receive substantial payments from foreign governments, the U.S. government, and several states.
Abusing Emergency Powers
President Trump has abused his power to declare emergencies by falsely declaring emergencies specifically to circumvent the rule of law, advance his own agenda, and confer privileges on certain business sectors. Since taking office, he’s used such declarations of national emergencies to deploy troops on the border in response to illegal immigration, declare a national energy emergency to protect and benefit fossil fuel companies, and also used such powers to impose tariffs without going through the standard legislative process.
Corruptly dismissing criminal charges against Eric Adams
After a U.S. Attorney resigned rather than file an improper dismissal of criminal charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, the Trump Administration entered into a corrupt quid-pro-quo agreement with Adams whereby the criminal case against him would be dropped in exchange for Adams agreeing to use city resource to enforce President Trump’s federal immigration agenda.