Because President Trump’s supporters infiltrated the U.S. Capital on January 6, Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats began contemplating ways to properly punish the president for initiating the siege. With the presidential inauguration quickly approaching, the FBI cautions about armed protests coming to fruition in all 50 states to follow through with the intentions of the first riot which left five people dead, including a Capitol Police Officer, and 120 arrests and counting. Thus, for inspiring this carnage, Trump became the first president to ever be impeached twice.

The first plan of action was for Vice President Pence to use the 25th Amendment to impeach Trump. Section 4 of the amendment, which was added in 1967, allows a president to be impeached by the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet members. However, Pence refused to comply with the plan since Section 4 had never been used before and he did not want this situation to go down in history. “I will not now yield to efforts in the House of Representatives to play political games at a time so serious in the life of our Nation,” Pence said. Even if Pence complied, there may not have been enough Cabinet members for the impeachment to even qualify.

On January 13, the House convened to vote on the matter and eventually reached a consensus. With ten Republicans joining the Democrats, the vote was 232 to 197 in favor of impeaching Trump. “Today, […] the House demonstrated that no one is above the law, not even the president of the United States, that Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to our country and that once again we honored our oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help us God,” Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the house, said.

The next step in the process is for the case to reach the Senate, but Pelosi has not revealed when she will send over the signed petition. Nevertheless, action in the Senate will not occur until after the Inauguration when there will be a switch of power; with the Republicans controlling the Senate, there is a smaller chance of Trump being impeached since 17 Republicans would have to vote alongside the Democrats. 

Hence, Trump will undeniably face consequences for “inciting insurrection,” but the impeachment process is not finalized and an ultimate consensus is weeks away. If the Senate rules in favor of impeachment, Trump will lose the ability to run for office again in 2024 along with $1.2 million of pension and paid travel expenses. Nonetheless, for now, the nation and other countries looking in will have to wait and see how the Senate shapes Trump’s predicament.