Trump’s presidency has been plagued by numerous complications primarily centered on his competence as the leader of the United States of America. Specifically, most of the assertions have been based on the questioning of his ability to uphold the values and virtues on which the American society is based. The most recent controversy has proven to be the most actionable as it presents accusations of Trump using his position for political leverage. In particular, the various interested stakeholders have presented arguments that the president should be impeached. The key basis of their argument is a phone call that Trump made to Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy in which the former requested the latter to conduct investigations against Joe Biden, a contender for the top seat in the United States (Chang, 2019). In spite of the arguments presented against the impeachment allegations, the call made by Trump could lead to his standing trial primarily due to the fact that the entailed conversations served to undermine the sovereignty of the United States.
Impeachment is a complex process that is often lengthy and that necessitates a clear comprehension of the law as well as the implications of the actions undertaken by a sitting president. In essence, impeachment is a construct since, the developers of the Constitution established a platform for removing judges, presidents, and other federal officials even incase their actions do not directly contradict the constitution. From a political perspective, impeachment is eventually considered to be a construct of proportional response. The lawmakers must make the decision of whether the actions of the president warrant removal from office. In the case of Trump, the conversation indicates that he withheld military assistance from the Ukrainian government primarily due to the fact that the latter failed to reveal incriminating information on Joe Biden, a possible rival in the upcoming 2020 Presidential election (Vance, 2019). Seemingly, the President was seeking for incriminating information on his possible contender and using the position of the United States as a world leader as well as his office for political gain.
The key reason why the impeachment could advance further is that withholding military aid from a foreign ally with the sole aim of leveraging a domestic presidential campaign can be considered to be unscrupulous as well as detrimental to the democracy of the United States. In essence, the history of the United States has been characterized by the various presidencies seeking to establish ties with international allies in order to gain a sense of union and good will for future purposes. In this regard, therefore, Trump effectively undermined years of ally building and possibly compromised the future of the United States in a situation in which the support of Ukraine was required (Zurcher, 2019). Second, by leveraging military aid, the United States depicted an image to the international community that individual interests overshadow national interests specifically in this case since the military aid could have assisted Ukraine defend it borders.
In order for the impeachment to succeed, there is a need for the House Judiciary Committee of a specially appointed committee to investigate the allegations and eventually pass a vote. Given the fact that the members of either entities seek to uphold the greater good of the American society over the interests of an individual, it is highly likely that they may vote in the affirmative since there are doubts concerning Trump’s inclination to uphold national good and international peace.
References
Chang, A. (2019). The phone call that could get Trump impeached. Retrieved 16 December 2019, from https://www.vox.com/videos/2019/10/7/20901251/trump-ukraine-impeachment-phone-call-video
Vance, J. (2019). Why All of Trump’s Defenses Against Impeachment Are Doomed to Fail. Retrieved from https://time.com/5724220/donald-trump-impeachment-defense/
Zurcher, A. (2019). What Trump’s Ukraine phone call really means. Retrieved 16 December 2019, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49831516