Donald Trump, the only president in American history to be impeached twice, would like you to forget that. He is now pressuring Congress to pass a resolution symbolically erasing both impeachments from the historical record. Constitutional scholars say this would have exactly zero legal effect, Democrats are openly salivating at the opportunity, and the midterms are four months away.
What Trump Is Actually Asking For
The Wall Street Journal first reported the push, which a White House official subsequently confirmed. Trump and his allies want a congressional resolution that would, in their words, nullify the two impeachments from his first term. The first, in 2019, centered on Trump pressuring Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden. The second came after January 6th, 2021, when members of Congress accused him of inciting an insurrection against the United States government.
He was acquitted by the Senate both times. Which means, legally speaking, Trump already won. And yet here he is, demanding a do-over on the do-over.
Constitutional scholars are unanimous on this: the US Constitution contains no mechanism for reversing or cancelling an impeachment once it has occurred. There is no undo button. There is no expunge function. Whatever Congress passes would be, in the most charitable possible framing, a strongly worded participation trophy. The historical record doesn't care about congressional resolutions.
A Gift-Wrapped Political Grenade
Here's the thing about dragging your two impeachments back into the news four months before a midterm election: you probably shouldn't do that.
CNN political commentator SE Cupp said the quiet part loudly. "What are you thinking?" she said on air. "He's not thinking ahead. All the reasons he was impeached get dredged up again, and we're all talking about it around a midterm election." That's not a Democratic talking point. That's a conservative commentator looking directly into the camera and asking if anyone is home.
Republicans are already bracing for a difficult November. Forcing every House member in a swing district to cast a public vote on whether two impeachments, one for abuse of power and one for inciting an insurrection, were actually fine and good, is a strange way to help those members keep their jobs. The people engineering this strategy are either playing eleven-dimensional chess or they have completely lost the plot.
Democrats Are Not Sad About This
Ted Lieu, the California Democrat who served as an impeachment manager during Trump's second trial, posted on social media with the energy of someone who just found twenty dollars in an old coat pocket. "As a former impeachment manager, I plead with you to please bring up Trump's prior impeachments," he wrote. "Let's hold hearings, call witnesses and show videos to remind people what happened. And please make every Republican in a swing district vote on this. Thank you."
Adam Schiff, who was lead impeachment manager in the first trial, was more blunt. "There is no expunging the stain of Trump's two impeachments," he wrote, adding that the whole exercise proves the president's only real priority is himself, not the economic hardships of ordinary Americans.
That is, to be fair, a political response from political actors. But Lieu and Schiff aren't wrong about the mechanics here. Every hearing, every witness, every video clip from January 6th that gets replayed on the news is a bad day for Republicans trying to win suburban districts in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
A Brief History of Getting Impeached
Trump is the first president ever impeached twice. Before him, only two presidents in American history had been impeached at all: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Both were acquitted by the Senate. Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 before the House could even vote.
So Trump managed to hit a milestone that took the entire prior history of the United States to produce, and then he hit it again. That is, in a very specific and darkly comic way, an achievement. And now he wants a congressional resolution so that future generations will know it didn't count.
The White House, for its part, sent out spokesperson Abigail Jackson to make the case. "Trump-deranged Democrats have spent years launching phoney attacks against the president and weaponising the government against him," she said, describing the effort to pass a resolution as sane individuals recognising shameful actions. She added that Trump "remains focused on one thing: doing what's best for the American people." The one thing being, at this particular moment, his impeachment record.
What This Actually Tells Us
Since returning to office, Trump has consistently framed both impeachments as part of a coordinated campaign by political enemies and government institutions to destroy him. That framing has been effective with his base. The grievance is genuine, in the sense that Trump genuinely feels it, and his supporters genuinely share it.
But there is a significant gap between "this is a powerful emotional narrative for the base" and "this is a good idea to act on four months before a midterm." Reactivating the most damaging footage and testimony from Trump's first term, voluntarily, as a political strategy, is the kind of decision that makes you wonder who exactly is in the room when these calls get made.
The constitution is not going to bend. The historical record is not going to update. Andrew Johnson is still impeached. Bill Clinton is still impeached. Donald Trump is still impeached, twice. A House resolution will not change any of that. What it will do is put it back on television.
The Dingo Take
Let's be honest about what this is. Trump has been back in office for over a year, the economy is lurching, and the president is spending political capital trying to get Congress to pass a legally meaningless piece of paper so he can feel better about something that happened in his first term. That is not the behavior of a man who is focused on the American people. That is the behavior of a man who checks his Wikipedia page before bed.
The particularly rich irony is that this might be the single most effective Democratic campaign ad generator since January 6th itself. Every Republican who votes yes hands their opponent a thirty-second spot. Every Republican who votes no hands Trump a grievance. There is no good outcome here for the party, which is probably why SE Cupp, who is not exactly a liberal firebrand, went on CNN and asked what on earth anyone was thinking.
The impeachments happened. The Senate acquitted him both times, which is the only legal outcome that actually matters. Trump won those fights, technically. Demanding a victory lap so elaborate it requires an act of Congress, for something you technically won, while simultaneously reminding every voter in America about Ukraine and January 6th, four months before an election, is a choice. It is a choice that Ted Lieu is begging them to make. That should tell you everything.
