Impeach, Remove, Resign (#122)
In this edition: six stories with 10 links I’ve recently found interesting about where things stand in our long, twilight struggle to defeat authoritarianism. Please contact your Senators and Representatives to ask them to call for President Trump’s removal from office; the president’s Iran War threats demonstrate he is unfit for office; Trump inadvertently makes a strong argument for his removal; the media must stop sanewashing the president; the proposed White House Correspondents’ Dinner protest is lame, and people should boycott the gala instead; and we must hold anyone who orders or commits a war crime accountable.
Here we go. We will win. I’m glad you’re here.
“It might be helpful for you to know that you are not alone. And that in the long, twilight struggle which lies ahead of us, there is the possibility of hope.” “The Long Twilight Struggle.” Babylon 5, created and written by J. Michael Straczynski, Season 2, Episode 20, 1995.
#1
I’m going to try to open these newsletters with a suggested action or something that gives me hope. Today I’m going with an action.
Please join me in calling your Member of Congress and your two United States Senators today. I am asking them to make a public statement calling for President Trump’s impeachment, resignation, or invocation of the 25th Amendment.
President Trump’s statements and actions grow increasingly unhinged. He is threatening atrocities and war crimes against a country of 93 million people. The next few stories of today’s edition go into the details.
None of these ways of removing Trump from office are likely to happen today. But we need leading Democrats to make the case. Staying silent doesn’t persuade anyone.
- You can call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the office of a Senator or Representative.
- You can also find contact information for your federal elected officials by going to the Congress.gov Find Your Member website.
- Going to the elected official’s website will also allow you to find contact information for their district offices, where you can leave a message.
#2
- Trump is unfit for office. He should be removed ASAP. (Robert B. Hubbell, Today’s Edition Newsletter, Link to Article)
- Is Trump About To Nuke Iran? (Garrett Graff, Doomsday Scenario, Link to Article)
The featured image in today’s newsletter is a Trump Truth Social post from Sunday. I had to check several times to ensure it was real. I agree with those who have described it as the most unhinged statement ever made by a U.S. president. Here it is again, because we must not look away or sanewash it.
It doesn’t stop there. Trump this morning explicitly threatened war crimes in another post that I had to check to ensure it was real. It is. Clicking on the image will take you to the post.
Just what is Trump threatening here? Can we be certain it isn’t a threat to use nuclear weapons?
No, we can’t. And that, as Garrett Graff explains, is terrifying.
Here’s what we need to reckon with: For 80 years, that policy of presidential authorization served as a check on the use of nuclear weapons — for years, the military tried to more routinely deploy and use nuclear weapons in Korea and Vietnam, among other conflicts. The president was always the one who said no — he was the check and balance in the system. In fact, there was a widespread expectation in the nuclear system that a president would never order the use of a nuclear weapon.
Today, though, for the first time, it’s the president who represents and unstable and reckless part of the nuclear equation. Trump, after all, is someone who thinks we could even use a nuclear weapon to defeat a hurricane. We have no idea how the coming weeks of the Iran war will unfold, but does anyone think Donald Trump’s going to be less unhinged and more stable and more thoughtful as the US strategy continues to flounder? We seemed poised — perhaps even this week — to launch ground missions against Iran. And Iran is actually wealthier and more powerful geopolitically today than it was at the start of the war.
Is the chance that tomorrow at 8 pm ET Donald Trump launches nuclear weapons against Iran zero? Definitely not — and, regardless of whether that’s a one-tenth-of-one-percent chance or two percent or eight percent, anything more than zero is too high. I’d personally put the chance that Donald Trump uses a nuclear weapon against Iran at some point in the three percent range — which is a stunningly high number, given the history of nuclear weapons and the presidency. (I’ve written in the past about how much of the physical, emotional, and mental toll of Trump’s presidency comes in this tiny shift in society from “zero” to “non-zero.”)
Even if it isn’t a threat to use nuclear weapons, destroying a civilization is a war crime. We cannot normalize a United States president threatening genocide.
I saw several Democrats put out statements calling upon the vice president and cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said, “Our country deserves so much better.”
Which it does. But not just from Trump.
The 25th Amendment is a more difficult process than impeachment and removal. If a president challenges the use of the 25th Amendment, then a two-thirds majority of both the House and Senate is required to overrule the objection.
Impeachment requires a majority of the House and two-thirds of the Senate.
I’m not against Senators and Representatives calling for the use of the 25th Amendment. But that’s a bit of a cop-out. They also should call for the use of the easier process—impeachment—in which they have a direct involvement. They also should demand the president’s resignation.
And they should do it again and again. Robert B. Hubbell explains why:
I understand that it is unlikely that Trump will be removed, but just as Trump has normalized threats of war crimes through repetition, we should normalize the proposition that Trump can and should be removed as president. The day may soon come when we must invoke the Constitution to remove or replace Trump. When that day arrives, it should not be the first time that the major media outlets and congressional leaders introduce that notion to the American public.
In the moment, it can sometimes be difficult to see obvious answers. Imagine, twenty years hence, when your children or grandchildren ask you how you reacted to Trump’s call to commit warm crimes against the Iranian people. Unacceptable answers include, “Nothing,” “I don’t recall,” and “I criticized his statement to anyone who would listen.” Compare, “I called for his immediate removal as president and did everything I could to make that happen.”
Trump is unfit to hold the office of president, dangerously so. We should say so, preferably in words of one syllable. No artifice, no euphemisms, no double standards, no defeatism, no learned helplessness. If we don’t call for his removal, what will our elected leaders think? We got a fair view of what they are (or are not) thinking on Sunday.
A few Republicans could also end this by crossing the aisle and joining Democrats in a national unity caucus. These Republicans could help Congress fulfill its Article 1 Constitutional role as a check on presidential power.
Such a national unity caucus could force Trump regime representatives to testify. They could investigate. They could pass legislation to constrain the president. All of this would be news that our media outlets could not ignore.
Politicians have the power to inform and convince the public. If I were an elected official today, I would take inspiration from Roman politician Cato the Elder and end every public statement with, “Furthermore, the president must be removed from office by impeachment, resignation, or the 25th Amendment.”
Success is never guaranteed. But we can—and must—try.
#3
The president made a convincing case for his resignation or removal from office yesterday.
It was likely a broken clock moment. It is a reminder that we need to take away any president’s unilateral authority to authorize a first strike of our nuclear arsenal.
#4
- What’s the Lede? (Ron Fournier, Convulsions, Link to Article)
- How the media should cover this deranged president (Margaret Sullivan, American Crisis, Link to Article)
Former AP Washington Bureau Chief Ron Fournier wants media outlets to stop sanewashing the president’s statements. He shares how he would have written about Trump’s “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards” post:
WASHINGTON — In a post that may live in infamy, President Donald Trump threatened Sunday to lay waste to Iran’s civilian infrastructure unless Tehran stops blocking the Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday. “Open the fucking strait, you crazy bastards,” he said on Truth Social, “or you’ll be living in Hell.”
A month after declaring the U.S.-Israeli alliance would easily triumph without a threat to the vital oil channel, Trump’s bellicosity bordered on threatening war crimes. “Praise be [to] Allah,” said the president, a favorite of evangelical Christian voters.
Fournier explained why he would have insisted on using the president’s words, including the expletives:
Had an editor pushed back on the opening clause, I would have relented; it may be too cute by half. But I would have fought for the rest.
A president’s words matter. A key to White House coverage is to craft ledes that make room for presidential quotes. Elevate his words, don’t soften them. Spotlight them, don’t scrub them.
Trump made it easy on editors Sunday, launching a verbal warhead that spoke for itself. But too many news organizations tried to speak for him. They used cliches like “expletive-laden” to wash his language and asterisks to disguise it, burying the full crazy of his quotation deep in their stories.
Margaret Sullivan, a former Buffalo News editor and New York Times public editor, explains how the media’s whitewashing of Trump fails its readers:
There’s been a lot of talk — including here — about the media’s disastrous tendency to “sane-wash” Trump.
It comes down to this: The press, because of its own conventions and time-honored practices, normalizes him, and thus fails to get across the extreme nature of this president’s behavior. Ten years of sane-washing have had their effect. He remains in power, reelected, undeterred.
On seeing Trump’s post, I thought immediately of Mark Jacob’s October piece about how the media is missing the biggest story there is — Trump’s apparent mental illness. Jacob, a former Chicago Tribune editor, wrote: “It keeps getting worse, and the mainstream media keep making the same mistakes in their coverage of the King of Crazytown.” After Trump claimed he “predicted” 9/11, Jacob wrote on Bluesky that “the media need to be writing about his mental unfitness every day until we get rid of him and save our country.” But of course, that didn’t happen then, and it didn’t happen this time.
And now, with this horrible Easter morning development, we’ve entered new territory.
But let’s get real. If traditional techniques and language (“emphatic threats”) aren’t getting it done, what actually would work?
Sullivan offers three specific suggestions for how the press can better inform its readers about what Trump is actually saying and doing in office. They overlap with Fournier’s suggestions above.
I also think Democratic elected officials can help by pointing out what Trump has said, word-for-word. If reporters can only cover conflict, then Democrats should create more of it.
Stop summarizing him. Share what Trump actually says and how he says it. Trump attacks the media constantly. They should stop doing him the favor of acting as his after-the-fact editor.
#5
- WHCD’s Trump-Era Accessories (Natalie Korach, Status, Link to Article)
- April 7, 2026 (Craig Calcaterra, Cup of Coffee, Link to Article)
Donald Trump became the first president never to attend the White House Correspondents Dinner during his first term in office. Trump has been clear about how much he hates the press. As Status’ Natalie Korach recaps:
It’s worth retracing the degree to which Trump has exerted pressure on the media since his return to the presidency. His administration has barred outlets from White House events, stripped the White House Correspondents’ Association of its traditional control over the press pool, booted the Associated Press over its refusal to use “Gulf of America,” defunded NPR and PBS, dismantled Voice of America, barred photojournalists from Defense Department briefings, and killed access for all reporters at the Pentagon during the U.S. military action in Iran. Trump has also waged legal battles against major news organizations, including ABC News, the BBC, CBS News, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, clearly as a means of seeking more favorable coverage. Meanwhile, he has encouraged his attack dog at the Federal Communications Commission, chairman Brendan Carr, to openly threaten regulatory action against broadcasters and even late-night hosts for what they say. The result is a coordinated campaign that has tested the boundaries of the First Amendment.
So, it was surprising (derogatory) to learn last month that the White House Correspondents Association’s leadership invited Trump to this year’s dinner. It was even more surprising that Trump accepted.
Since Trump will be there, Status learned that WHCA members are planning to make a protest. Since these reporters are experts at understanding how to make a story and get attention, I’m sure it will be something remarkable.
Or not, as Korach shares:
On a Saturday evening in late April, the ballroom of the Washington Hilton will feature the annual tradition of reporters dressing up in tuxedos and gowns to mingle, network, and celebrate their profession. But this year, when Donald Trump looks out into the crowd, he might spot some of those attending the White House Correspondents’ Association’s gala sporting unusual accessories: pocket squares and pins with the words of the First Amendment, in a subversive gesture supporting press freedom, reflecting the news media’s consciousness of the perilous moment it’s in, and why.
Pocket squares and pins? Seriously? And learning that these were designed by CNN’s Jake Tapper is just the icing on a pathetic cake.
Trump is not your friend, my dear White House correspondents. Inviting him is another way to normalize him and how he treats you. Trump demeans you, threatens you, and treats you like garbage.
Inviting him was a huge mistake. This planned protest does not remedy the problem. Any reporter with a sense of honor or responsibility can react in only one way: just not go. Craig Calcaterra explained why in his newsletter this morning:
Donald Trump has mounted a coordinated campaign to deprive reporters of their First Amendment rights, to elevate and favor bought-and-paid-for mouthpieces who spread disinformation and propaganda, and to make his administration answerable to no one. The proper response to that is not to wear a little silent protest pocket square no one will notice or care about. It's to boycott the banquet the White House Correspondents' Association puts on each year in order to get all chummy with the President and other people in power and to say, clearly, as often as possible, how dangerous a threat this administration is to the American Constitutional Order.
Anyone who goes to this dinner should not be allowed to forget how they betrayed their profession. Seriously, people. Have some self-respect.
#6
- All the President’s Bullshit (on Iran) (Jonathan V. Last, The Bulwark, Link to Article)
Jonathan V. Last’s article does a fantastic job of recapping the timeline of all Trump’s justifications for the Iran War—and their contradictions.
But it is a point he makes at the end that I want to highlight. He writes:
I do not envy military professionals who may be ordered to commit crimes by the commander-in-chief. Like Mike Pence, they may find themselves in a situation where they must either obey the president or the law—and there will be consequences no matter what.
But it seems important that the United States be fully committed to enforcing the full weight of legal consequences in the future, all the way down the chain. In the same way that every employee of DHS should be on the hook for any crimes committed during the Trump administration, so should members of the military.
Because if we turn back this authoritarian attempt and do not pursue full legal accountability for everyone who was complicit in it, then we will find ourselves confronted with another attempt.
There can be no free shots.
No more looking forward, not backward. People who commit crimes need to be held accountable.
And those who choose not to follow illegal orders need our support and admiration.
Useful Websites and Information Trackers
Election Data
- 2026 Election Calendar (The Downballot, Link to Article)
- Ultimate Data Guide (The Downballot, Link to Article)
Trump Regime Authoritarianism
- Trump Action Tracker (Making Sense of US Politics, Link to Article)
- Executive Watch [Trump Abuses of Power] (Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, The Unpopulist, Link to Article)
Trump Regime Corruption
- Kleptocracy Tracker Timeline (Anne Applebaum, SNF Agora Institute, Link to Article)
Follow me on BlueSky to see the stories I’m finding and the tabs I’m opening throughout the day.
From the Inaugural Address of President John F. Kennedy
In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe.
Now the trumpet summons us again—not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need—not as a call to battle, though embattled we are—but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out “rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation”—a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.
The Long Twilight Struggle is free and supported voluntarily by its readers. If you liked what you read and can afford it, please consider becoming a paid subscriber! Or, if you prefer, feel free to buy me a coffee using the tip jar.
