Various people and groups assert that U.S. president Donald Trump engaged in impeachable activity both before and during his first presidency, and talk of impeachment began before he took office. Grounds asserted for impeachment have included possible violations of the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution by accepting payments from foreign dignitaries; alleged collusion with Russia during the campaign for the 2016 United States presidential election; alleged obstruction of justice with respect to investigation of the collusion claim; and accusations of "Associating the Presidency with White Nationalism, Neo-Nazism and Hatred", which formed the basis of a resolution for impeachment brought on December 6, 2017.
The first formal impeachment efforts were initiated by two Democratic representatives (Al Green and Brad Sherman) in 2017, the first year of his presidency. Since the Republicans controlled both the House and the Senate during 2017 and 2018, the likelihood of impeachment during that period was considered by all to be low. A December 2017 resolution of impeachment failed in the House by a 58–364 margin. The Democrats gained control of the House in 2019 and launched multiple investigations into Trump's actions and finances. Speaker Nancy Pelosi initially resisted calls for impeachment. In May 2019, Pelosi indicated that Trump's continued actions, which she characterized as obstruction of justice and refusal to honor congressional subpoenas, might make an impeachment inquiry necessary. An increasing number of House Democrats and one Republican were requesting such an inquiry.
On September 24, 2019, Pelosi announced that six committees would undertake a formal impeachment inquiry after reports about controversial interactions between Trump and the country of Ukraine. This inquiry resulted in Trump's first impeachment on December 18, 2019.
In January 2021, during the final weeks of Trump's first term, a renewed effort was made to remove him from office following his efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election by baselessly asserting voter fraud, which resulted in the Trump-Raffensperger phone call and the United States Capitol attack. This effort resulted in Trump's second impeachment on January 13, 2021.
On April 29, 2025, approximately 3 months after the beginning of Trump's second term, Shri Thanedar announced his intention to impeach Trump, and on May 14, 2025, brought forward 7 articles of impeachment, arguing Trump has committed obstruction of justice, bribery and corruption. However, the motion has been condemned by other congressional Democrats.
On May 15, 2025, Al Green submitted articles of impeachment, in House Resolution 415.
In June 2025, Elon Musk called for Trump to be impeached when he engaged in a public feud with Trump.politico.com
In December 2025, the United States House of Representatives voted to table a resolution to impeach President Trump after Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) forced a vote on the matter, scuttling the snap impeachment push with the help of Democratic leaders voting “present” rather than aiding Green with the effort.
On April 7, 2026 Trump posted a message on Truth Social stating that “a whole civilization will die tonight” should Iran refuse to open the Strait of Hormuz. This prompted several acting and former politicians to start impeachment or to ask the cabinet to use the process laid out in the fourth section of the 25th amendment.
Summary of efforts In December 2016, Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren, Dick Durbin, Chris Coons, Ben Cardin, and Jeff Merkley introduced a bill that would require the president of the United States to divest any assets that could raise a conflict of interest, including a statement that failure to divest such assets would constitute high crimes and misdemeanors "under the impeachment clause of the U.S. Constitution". Vanity Fair characterized this as a preemptive effort to lay the groundwork for a future impeachment argument. Concerns had previously been expressed that Trump's extensive business and real estate dealings, especially with respect to government agencies in other countries, may violate the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, sparking debate as to whether that is the case.
Immediately after his inauguration, The Independent and The Washington Post each reported on efforts already underway to impeach Trump, based on what the organizers regard as conflicts of interest arising from Trump's ability to use his political position to promote the interests of "Trump"-branded businesses, and ongoing payments by foreign entities to businesses within the Trump business empire as a violation of the Foreign Emoluments Clause. In March 2017, China provisionally granted 38 "Trump" trademark applications set to take permanent effect in 90 days, which were noted to come in close proximity to the president's making policy decisions favorable to China.
The Washington Post further noted the creation of ImpeachDonaldTrumpNow.org by Free Speech For People and RootsAction, two liberal advocacy groups. On February 9, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D, NY) had filed a resolution of inquiry titled "" to force the Trump administration to turn over documents relating to potential conflicts of interest and to ties with Russia. Some sources identified this as the first step in the process of impeaching Trump. Fox News outlined two potential bases for impeachment, one being the Emoluments Clause and the other being complicity with Russian interference in the 2016 United States presidential election. On March 21, it was widely reported that Congresswoman Maxine Waters tweeted "Get ready for impeachment," which Waters explained was in reference to the allegations of collusion with Russian interference in the election.
On January 17, 2019, new accusations involving Trump surfaced, claiming he instructed his long-time lawyer, Michael Cohen, to lie under oath surrounding Trump's involvement with the Russian government to erect a Trump Tower in Moscow. This also sparked calls for an investigation and for the president to "resign or be impeached" should such claims be proven genuine. The Mueller Report was released on April 18, 2019, and Robert Mueller himself made follow-up comments on May 29. The report reached no conclusion about whether Trump had or had not committed criminal obstruction of justice. Mueller strongly hinted that it was up to Congress to make such a determination. Congressional support for an impeachment inquiry increased as a result.
A formal impeachment inquiry was launched on September 24, 2019, as a response to the Trump–Ukraine scandal, in which Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani pressed the Ukrainian government repeatedly since at least May 2019 to investigate Hunter Biden, the son of 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden. The purpose of the requested investigation was alleged to be to hurt Biden's campaign for President. In July Trump issued a hold on military aid scheduled to be sent to Ukraine, releasing it in September after controversy arose. There was widespread speculation that the withholding of the aid was intended to force Ukraine to investigate Biden; Giuliani seemed to confirm that there was such a connection.
In an October 8, 2019 letter to House Democratic leaders, the White House stated it would not cooperate with "[their] partisan and unconstitutional inquiry under these circumstances." The eight-page letter was widely interpreted by legal analysts as containing political rather than legal arguments.
On December 18, 2019, the House of Representatives impeached Donald Trump almost entirely along party lines.
Early developments February 2017 The Impeach Trump Leadership PAC was started by California Democratic Party congressional candidate Boyd Roberts.
May 2017
Actions and revelations
Following Trump's dismissal of FBI director James Comey, multiple Democratic members of Congress discussed an "impeachment clock" for Trump, saying that he was "moving" toward impeachment and raising the future possibility of bringing forth articles of impeachment for obstruction of justice and criminal malfeasance, if proof of illegal activity were found. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said in an interview: "It may well produce another United States v. Nixon on a subpoena that went to United States Supreme Court. It may well produce impeachment proceedings, although we're very far from that possibility."
Later in May, news of Trump's disclosure of classified information to Russia led to further discussions about the possibility of impeachment, with Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA) alluding to the possibility, along with writer Benjamin Wittes, legal scholar Jack Goldsmith, and others.
Around the same time in May, the revelation that the president had asked Comey to drop the investigation of Michael Flynn led still more observers, including Senator Angus King (I-ME), to say impeachment might be in the offing.
The developments led Senator John McCain (R-AZ) to venture that matters had reached "Watergate scope and size".
Preparations for possible proceedings
Impeachment proceedings begin with a resolution being introduced in the House of Representatives. The first two Representatives to publicly suggest such an action were Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Al Green (D-TX).
Two Republican representatives, Justin Amash (R-MI) and Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), called for impeachment on the grounds that obstruction of justice charges against Trump were proven true. Curbello was defeated in his bid for reelection in 2018, but Amash was reelected, and following his reading of the redacted Mueller Report, reaffirmed his position, stating the evidence supported the conclusion that Trump had committed impeachable offenses. In July 2019, Amash left the Republican Party to become an independent member of Congress.
On May 17, Representative Green made a call for impeachment on the house floor and House Oversight Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) announced that he was issuing subpoenas on the memo FBI director James Comey wrote detailing possible obstruction of justice by the president. On May 24, Green told C-SPAN in an interview that he was drafting articles of impeachment and would shortly submit them as a privileged resolution, to begin the formal impeachment process.
However, some major Democratic figures stressed the need for caution, patience and bipartisanship in any potential impeachment process.
Administration officials said that White House lawyers were indeed researching impeachment proceedings and how to deal with them.
Independent counsel appointment On May 17, former FBI director Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, acting after the recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, to lead a Special Counsel investigation to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and any cover-up related to it by Trump or any White House officials. According to sources close to the White House, the Trump administration is considering using various obscure legal means to slow down the investigation and undermine the special counsel.Note that starting with the appointment of Archibald Cox in relation to the Watergate scandal in May 1973, supporters of presidential impeachment proceedings have relied on independent counsels to gather evidence in support of their efforts. See
June 2017