Donald Trump was the previous president of the United States and despite his numerous failures, he was acquitted from the impeachment process. This is not the first attempt to impeach Trump, and it is intriguing to delve into the process behind this acquittal. In his four years of serving as the President of the United States, Trump was unable to lead peacefully and instead led to immaturity and bias. Donald Trump has represented this country in a manner so inappropriate of a national leader and has made the United States a joke to many surrounding countries. In my opinion, Donald Trump should have been impeached and the acquittal was a terrible representation of what a leader should be within this country.

            During his presidency, Trump demonstrated to consistently abuse his power as a president. This can be seen in the financial benefits he received “from foreign governments through his business empire without having first obtained the consent of Congress” (“Blumenthal, Et Al. v. Trump.”). This source is directly taken from the Constitutional Accountability Center, a very reliable organization. Additionally, this issue is significant, and “Trump’s failure to comply with the Constitution matters” (“Blumenthal, Et Al. v. Trump.”) because it shows his blatant disrespect for the nation as well as the privilege that he exercised within his past presidency. There were multiple attempts to sue Trump due to this issue and many more, but those allegations were mostly dropped as well. The following source, a reliable A to Z of the impeachment process, states that there are consistent emoluments involved in his presidency where he “violated both the domestic and foreign emolument clauses of the Constitution from day one of his moneymaking presidency” (Hasan, Mehdi.). 

            Another reason why Donald Trump should not have been acquitted from the impeachment process is his direct encouragement of “supporters—including members of the armed forces—to attack his political opponents” (Hasan, Mehdi.). According to a source provided by NPR, a highly regarded resource, “Donald John Trump engaged in high Crimes and Misdemeanors by inciting violence against the Government of the United States” (Naylor, Brian.). Additionally, “The impeachment article says that during an address to supporters on the day of the violence, Trump “willfully made statements that, in context, encouraged — and foreseeably resulted in — lawless action at the Capitol, such as: ‘if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” (Naylor, Brian.) words that greatly impacted our country as seen through the riots at the Capitol. Trump has repeatedly incited violence and in fact, encourages it from his supporters. This type of demeanor is extremely unhealthy and has demonstrated a great divide within our country throughout the last four years. 

            Another reason why Trump should have been fully impeached is due to the number of lies he has told while in office. He has lied about politics, personal life, and to the public. This conduct should not be tolerated, however, has been by the administration countless times. He has “distorted basic economic facts,” and has “often lied about facts in ways that distorted reality to his political advantage” making it “clear that he intended for his audience to believe his implications” (Pfiffner, James P.). Donald Trump has led the country with lies and deceit, one of the primary reasons why he should have been fully impeached this second time around. His “refusal to admit the truth of widely accepted facts corrodes political discourse” and his “false statements about politics and policy strike at the very heart of democracy” (Pfiffner, James P.). 

            It is in my opinion that Donald Trump deserved to be impeached fully in the initial round, but especially the second around. He is unable to properly lead a country due to his emoluments, encouragement of violence, and general deceit with which he led the United States. In the future, the proper protocol should be followed and honored, and the Constitution needs to be upheld. The oversight of the administration is glaring disrespectful to this nation, to the citizens, and to everything that we stand for all these years. I think that in the future, there needs to be higher upheld laws and regulations that would provide an escape for another occurrence of a presidency such as Trump’s. The laws also need to be upheld and if they are not, I think that there should be high consequences. Donald Trump should never have gotten away with all the distasteful things that he did during our presidency and it is because of the previously stated information, as well as many more points outside of these, that his acquittal was an absolute embarrassment to this country, and it is one that must never occur again. 

Citations

“Blumenthal, Et Al. v. Trump.” Constitutional Accountability Center, www.theusconstitution.org/litigation/trump-and-foreign-emoluments-clause/.

Hasan, Mehdi. “The A to Z of Things Trump Could and Should Have Been Impeached For.” The Intercept, 19 Dec. 2019, theintercept.com/2019/12/19/a-z-trump-impeachment/.

Naylor, Brian. “Article Of Impeachment Cites Trump’s ‘Incitement’ Of Capitol Insurrection.” NPR, NPR, 9 Feb. 2021, www.npr.org/sections/trump-impeachment-effort-live-updates/2021/01/11/955631105/impeachment-resolution-cites-trumps-incitement-of-capitol-insurrection.

Pfiffner, James P. The Lies of Donald Trump: A Taxonomy. 2019, pfiffner.gmu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Pfiffner-The-Lies-of-Donald-Trump-A-Taxonomy.pdf.