From Social Media Bans to Impeachment: What Happens to Trump Now?
On January 8, two days after the insurrection at Capitol Hill, Twitter issued an official statement to suspend Donald Trump’s Twitter account, instantly eliminating his reach to over 88 million followers. The company cited concerns over multiple tweets that baselessly claimed election fraud, as well as others that incited violence. Twitter’s actions, however, would only be the beginning of a series of unprecedented repercussions carried out by both private companies and the government against the former president.
Following Twitter, other major social media platforms enacted their own suspensions relating to Trump and the Capital riot. TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, Youtube, and Twitch all terminated Trump’s accounts. Facebook and its acquired company Instagram have indefinitely banned him, and the corporation's Oversight Board will make a decision in the coming months if the ban will be permanent. Additionally, Google, Apple and Amazon Web have removed their support for Parler, a popular conservative platform that might have played a role in organizing the Pro-Trump riots in Washington. These bans spurred backlash from many Trump supporters, who argued that they were infringing upon free speech. However, professionals noted that while social media platforms are increasingly being viewed as public places, they are still private corporations to the law. This means that unlike the government, which the First Amendment applies to, private companies can abide by their own rules on censorship.
Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress sought to invoke the 25th Amendment against Trump, which would have been a quicker legal maneuver than impeachment. The 25th amendment, ratified following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, would allow the Vice President to either become the President or take up presidential duties when a sitting president is unable to continue. The only provision of the Amendment left unused since ratification is Section 4, which gives the Vice President, when backed by cabinet or governmental support, the power to deem a president unfit for duties. Many argued that Trump fit this definition by attempting to incite violence and by undermining the legitimacy of the election.
The House of Representatives, following a 223 to 205 vote, passed a resolution on January 12 to formally request that Mike Pence enact the 25th Amendment. Pence rejected the request in a letter to Speaker Pelosi, writing that it was not in the best interest of the country or the Constitution to do so. He argued that he would not “yield to efforts in the House of Representatives to play political games at a time so serious in the life of our nation.”
With the 25th Amendment out of question, House Democrats turned to drafting articles of impeachment for a second time since the Ukraine incident in late 2019. However, unlike the previous attempt, ten members of the Republican party also voted to impeach Trump. With only a week left in office, Trump became the first president to be impeached twice in American history. Four days after the Biden administration took office, Speaker Pelosi released the articles to the Senate on January 24, triggering the start of Trump's second Senate impeachment trial. An impeachment by the Senate would not only serve as historical precedent, but would also prevent Trump from running for office again. While the trial has been scheduled to commence on the week of February 8, much is still unclear about how it will proceed. Questions on how the process will work given that Trump is no longer in office, whether witnesses will be allowed, the length of the trial, and how a Democrat majority Senate will vote will likely be answered in the coming weeks.
By NAVYA SAMMETA