Count the ways of removing Donald Trump from office

THE idea of Donald Trump winning the White House once seemed impossible.

Now his opponents are working to see how they can get him out of the Oval Office – and he is under fire from some of the most senior figures in his own party.

President Trump’s claim that there is “blame on both sides” for the recent violence in Virginia has drawn fierce criticism.

White nationalists and protesters clashed in Charlottesville. Thirty-twoyear-old Heather Heyer, who is remembered as a “passionate advocate for the disenfranchised”, was killed when a car was driven into a crowd.

Mr Trump’s comments that “you had a group on one side that was bad” and a “group on the other side that was also very violent” proved that more than half a year into office he has not lost his ability to shock and scandalise.

The furore has put new energy behind the search for ways of removing Mr Trump from office. Here are the leading options. 1. Trigger the 25th amendment to the US Constitution.

Vice President Mike Pence has been a loyal defender of Mr Trump and is a vital link between the billionaire former reality TV star and both traditional Republicans and social conservatives. However, if he grew convinced Mr Trump was “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” he could seek to replace him as Acting President.

According to Evan Osnos of the New Yorker: “The assessment can be made either by the Vice-President and a majority of the Cabinet secretaries or by a congressionally appointed body, such as a panel of medical experts. If the President objects – a theoretical crisis that scholars call ‘contested removal’ – Congress has three weeks to debate and decide the issue.

“A two-thirds majority in each chamber is required to remove the President. There is no appeal.”

A Bill has already been introduced in the House of Representatives to establish a commission to determine whether Mr Trump is unfit for office.

This effort is backed by a collection of Democrats who have been alarmed by the President’s behaviour. But one of the most prominent calls for this method to be used to remove Mr Trump has come from a highly respected conservative columnist at the New York Times, Ross Douthat.

He wrote: “This will not get better. It could easily get worse.”

However, there would be deep unease at the use of this amendment to the constitution to remove a democratically elected president, albeit one who failed to win a majority of the popular vote. 2. Impeach the President. There has been talk of impeachment almost from the moment Mr Trump won the election.

David Brooks, seen as one of the New York Times’ more conservative commentators, said in his November 11 column that “the guy will probably resign or be impeached within a year”.

Discussion about impeachment went up several gears when the claim emerged that Mr Trump had pressed then-FBI director James Comey to drop an investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Mr Flynn resigned after it emerged he had had conversations with the Russian ambassador.

A president can be removed if enough lawmakers decide he or she has committed “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanours”.

No President has ever been ejected from office this way but there is a clear process.

The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee would be expected to consider whether there are grounds for impeachment. If a simple majority vote for impeachment is won in the House it would then be up to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to oversee a trial in the Senate.

If two-thirds of Senators found Mr Trump guilty he would be removed and Mike Pence would become President. It is highly unlikely this would happen when 240 of the 435 members of the House of Representatives and 52 of the 100 Senators are Republicans.

Mr Trump may not be a traditional Republican or a textbook conservative but lawmakers in his party were nevertheless delighted that he stopped Hillary Clinton becoming President.

They know they would face the wrath of Mr Trump’s fans if they were complicit in his removal – and this could trigger the creation of a new populist party that might threaten their majorities.

Commenting on the likelihood of Mr Trump not seeing out his term in office, the New Yorker’s Mr Osnos commented: “In 228 years, only one President has resigned; two have been impeached, though neither was ultimately removed from office; eight have died. But nothing about Trump is normal.”

3. Mass resignations and a boycott of the White House.

The concept of “public service” carries great honour in the United States. Leaving a lucrative job in the private sector to serve a President is seen as a way of serving your country.

However, the Trump administration has failed to appoint people to key staff positions. By this time, President Obama had made 433 nominations and secured 310 confirmations; President Trump has nominated 277 people but had just 124 confirmed.

There is widespread concern at how understaffing may be affecting the running of government. If qualified people refuse to serve under Mr Trump and others express no confidence in his leadership by resigning he will be hugely weakened.

Civil society could also play a major role in encouraging America to look to a post-Trump future. The Boy Scouts of America apologised for his speech last month to 40,000 of their members; if the invitations to speak at such events dry up, if celebrities and heroes turn down the chance to receive honours at the White House, and if experts and industry leaders decline to serve on his commissions, Mr Trump will lose the grandeur and the crucial clout which traditionally accompanies the role of head of state. 4. A primary challenge. Mr Trump’s foes want him gone long before 2020 but one way for his own party to deny him a second fouryear term would be for Republicans to hand the presidential nomination to someone else.

Pundits are having great fun coming up with the names of Republicans who could stand against Mr Trump. On the right of the party there is Ted Cruz, who was vilified by Mr Trump during the last primaries; John Kasich articulates a much more moderate Republicanism, and then there are rising stars in the party such as Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse.

Mr Sasse is the author of The Vanishing American Adult. The publicity for the book warns that unless there is a new maturity in the nation’s culture then America may fall “prey to populist demagogues”.

Was he thinking of anyone in particular?