London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Saturday, Jul 12, 2025

'Politically Toxic' Trump May Be Disqualified From Seeking Office Again

"Politically Toxic" Trump May Be Disqualified From Seeking Office Again

Ten Republicans crossed the aisle to join all House Democrats in declaring that Trump deserved removal from office for inciting an insurrection, offering a withering coda to the president's inglorious fall.

Donald Trump's political future suffered a grave blow on Wednesday after the House impeached him for a second time, an unprecedented rebuke that may result in the White House doors being forever shut to him.

Ten Republicans crossed the aisle to join all House Democrats in declaring that Trump deserved removal from office for inciting an insurrection, offering a withering coda to the president's inglorious fall.

Unable to manage the coronavirus pandemic and persuade voters to return him to the White House, the president instead inspired a violent and conspiracy-fueled attack on the seat of American democracy.

The backlash against Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol has been swift, creating an unprecedented test of the vise-like grip he's held on his party since his 2016 political ascendance. The Capitol riot the president helped incite sparked a wave of resignations across the administration, led to the president's banishment from Twitter, and prompted corporate leaders to suspend donations to Republicans who peddled false allegations of widespread voter fraud.

The Senate now must hold its second impeachment trial of Trump, likely after he's already left office. A post-presidential conviction could bar Trump from ever seeking federal office again.

While few Republican senators have said where they stand on the matter, the GOP leader, Kentucky's Mitch McConnell, left open the possibility he'll vote to convict in a letter to colleagues on Wednesday.

Regardless of the outcome, the events of the past week have shaken the pillars of American politics and point to a fraught road ahead for the Republican party.

Trump's impeachment will undoubtedly cement his status as a martyr among his most loyal followers, who have cast the move as the latest effort by Washington to attack and undermine an outsider who threatened the status quo. But several Republicans, including Representatives Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger and John Katko, spoke out forcefully against Trump's actions and voted to impeach.

"This is a vote of conscience," Cheney said Wednesday. "It's one where there are different views in our conference. But our nation is facing an unprecedented, since the Civil War, constitutional crisis. That's what we need to be focused on."

Some members of the party, though, tried to have it both ways. Loath to defend Trump's actions, they instead argued that impeachment undermined President-elect Joe Biden's call for the country to unify in the aftermath of a presidency that has worn the nation thin. Trump was impeached by a 232-197 vote.

"Tremendous Anger"


Trump, for his part, has maintained the same vaguely threatening posture that helped foment the crisis in the first place. On Tuesday, he blamed the media and Democrats for "a continuation of the greatest witch hunt in the history of politics."

"I think it's causing tremendous danger to our country and it's causing tremendous anger," he said.

He issued a statement Wednesday, as the House debated impeachment, that called for peace.

"In light of reports of more demonstrations, I urge that there must be NO violence, NO lawbreaking and NO vandalism of any kind," he said. "That is not what I stand for, and it is not what America stands for."

But the violent riot has tested the loyalty of some of Trump's longtime enablers and allies. He alienated Mike Pence by tweeting that the vice president "didn't have the courage" to illegally declare Trump the winner of an election he had lost, further inflaming his supporters before the riot.

Pence, in the Capitol at the time presiding over the congressional count of Electoral College votes, had to flee the mob with other lawmakers.

Several top administration officials canceled international travel or cut trips short this week out of concern that foreign adversaries might seek to exploit the U.S. political crisis and a White House under strain.

Trump's attention will now turn to minimizing fallout from the impeachment vote on any possible second act in political life, while attempting to paint the consequences for his role instigating the riot as overblown and unfair.

His most immediate concern may be whipping support in the Senate, which needs a two-thirds vote to convict. More than a dozen Republicans would need to join Democrats to remove him from office. While Trump's electoral loss and subsequent behavior has eroded his standing with many in the party, only one GOP senator -- Utah's Mitt Romney -- voted to convict during Trump's first impeachment trial less than a year ago.

Even out of office, Senate conviction would be more than an embarrassment for the president. He would go down in history as the only president ever impeached and convicted, and senators could subsequently move to disqualify Trump from seeking federal office ever again, a measure requiring only a simple majority vote.

And fighting conviction could prove financially costly to Trump as well. Since he won't be president, he won't have a taxpayer-funded White House counsel's office to defend him.

He already faces mounting financial pressure. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city will cancel some $17 million in contracts with the president's company, Trump Organization, including deals to operate skating rinks and a golf course. Stripe Inc. said earlier this week it would halt payment processing for Trump's campaign.

And investigators for New York's attorney general continue to examine Trump's tax records and whether he broke the law by making hush-money payments to women who claimed he'd had affairs with them before his election.

Impeachment could also mean the loss of pensions for the president and first lady Melania Trump, as well as federal funds for a post-presidential office and staff, though legal opinions are split on the matter.

Trump's Future


Separately, the president will try desperately to frame the impeachment effort within a broader narrative of persecution and grievance that he's channeled throughout his presidency.

It worked before, when his approval ratings rebounded in the aftermath of the special counsel investigation into his campaign's alleged ties with Russia, and after the Senate failed to convict him following his impeachment for pressuring Ukraine to launch an investigation into Biden and his son.

But Trump's role in the riot -- which broke out shortly after he encouraged supporters to march to the Capitol and "fight much harder" against his political opponents -- is less complicated. Just 33% of Americans approved of Trump's handling of his job in a Quinnipiac University poll released Monday.

And the mob scene at the Capitol only exacerbated perceptions Trump had become politically toxic. Not only was the president unable to win re-election, but GOP control of the Senate evaporated when two incumbent Republicans in Georgia lost despite the president campaigning on their behalf -- all before the chaos unfolded in the halls of Congress.

Trump will hope once again to defy expectations by operating outside the mainstream, though his options may prove dwindling. Fringe conservative cable channels have found themselves under threat of legal action for echoing the Trump campaign's allegations about rigged voting machines, while Cumulus Media told conservative talk radio hosts to stop suggesting the election had been stolen, according to Inside Music Media.

And Trump's role in the riot cost him his most important megaphone, his @realDonaldTrump Twitter account, now permanently suspended.

Trump has already said he is considering launching his own alternative social media network in the wake of his ban and on Wednesday sought to place his troubles with technology companies within a broader conservative narrative alleging discrimination and persecution.

"They shouldn't be doing it," Trump said. "But there's always a counter move when they do that."

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Reparations argument crushed
Rainmaker CEO Says Cloud Seeding Paused Before Deadly Texas Floods
A 92-year-old woman, who felt she doesn't belong in a nursing home, escaped the death-camp by climbing a gate nearly 8 ft tall
French Journalist Acquitted in Controversial Case Involving Brigitte Macron
Elon Musk’s xAI Targets $200 Billion Valuation in New Fundraising Round
Kraft Heinz Considers Splitting Off Grocery Division Amid Strategic Review
Trump Proposes Supplying Arms to Ukraine Through NATO Allies
EU Proposes New Tax on Large Companies to Boost Budget
Trump Imposes 35% Tariffs on Canadian Imports Amid Trade Tensions
Junior Doctors in the UK Prepare for Five-Day Strike Over Pay Disputes
US Opens First Rare Earth Mine in Over 70 Years in Wyoming
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
Bitcoin Reaches New Milestone of $116,000
Biden’s Doctor Pleads the Fifth to Avoid Self-Incrimination on President’s Medical Fitness
Grok Chatbot Faces International Backlash for Antisemitic Content
Severe Heatwave Claims 2,300 Lives Across Europe
NVIDIA Achieves Historic Milestone as First Company Valued at $4 Trillion
Declining Beer Consumption Signals Cultural Shift in Germany
Linda Yaccarino Steps Down as CEO of X After Two Years
US Imposes New Tariffs on Brazilian Exports Amid Political Tensions
Azerbaijan and Armenia are on the brink of a historic peace deal.
Emails Leaked: How Passenger Luggage Became a Side Income for Airport Workers
Polish MEP: “Dear Leftists - China is laughing at you, Russia is laughing, India is laughing”
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Weinstein Victim’s Lawyer Says MeToo Movement Still Strong
U.S. Enacts Sweeping Tax and Spending Legislation Amid Trade Policy Shifts
Football Mourns as Diogo Jota and Brother André Silva Laid to Rest in Portugal
Labour Expected to Withdraw Support for Special Needs Funding Model
Leaked Audio Reveals Tory Aide Defending DEI Record
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
London Stock Exchange Faces Historic Low in Initial Public Offerings
A new online platform has emerged in the United Kingdom, specifically targeting Muslim men seeking virgin brides
Trump Celebrates Independence Day with B-2 Flyover and Signs Controversial Legislation
Boris Johnson Urges Conservatives to Ignore Farage
SNP Ordered to Update Single-Sex Space Guidance Within Days
Starmer Set to Reject Calls for Wealth Taxes
Stolen Century-Old Rolls-Royce Recovered After Hotel Theft
Macron Presses Starmer to Recognise Palestinian State
Labour Delayed Palestine Action Ban Over Riot Concerns
Swinney’s Tax Comments ‘Offensive to Scots’, Say Tories
High Street Retailers to Enforce Bans on Serial Shoplifters
Music Banned by Henry VIII to Be Performed After 500 Years
Steve Coogan Says Working Class Is Being ‘Ethnically Cleansed’
Home Office Admits Uncertainty Over Visa Overstayer Numbers
JD Vance Questions Mandelson Over Reform Party’s Rising Popularity
Macron to Receive Windsor Carriage Ride in Royal Gesture
Labour Accused of ‘Hammering’ Scots During First Year in Power
BBC Head of Music Stood Down Amid Bob Vylan Controversy
Corbyn Eyes Hard-Left Challenge to Starmer’s Leadership
London Tube Trains Suspended After Major Fire Erupts Nearby
×