reactionary worldview is best symbolized by his commitment to erecting a wall along America’s southern borders—a throwback to the unsustainable walled cities of medieval times. People could not prosper or thrive in these conditions. They suffered due to polluted water, shortages of food and consumer goods, crumbling habitation, and deficient sanitation. They were ravaged by diseases, like smallpox, dysentery, and the catastrophic Black Death. For a short while, the walled cities may have provided protections, but as technology advanced—as it always does and will continue to do—the walls became useless for defense.
This vision of a walled-off nation is not populist, but profoundly elitist. It reeks of the fortress mentality of privileged Americans who, like Trump, have retreated into the shelter of gated enclaves—guarded versions of medieval castles. He hides out in Trump Tower, away from the very people who flock to his rallies. In the words of renowned late scholar Umberto Eco, “Such postmodern neomedieval Manhattan new castles as the Citicorp Center and Trump Tower [are] curious instances of a new feudalism, with their courts open to peasants and merchants and the well-protected high-level apartments reserved for lords.” In 1984, Trump even planned to build a literal “Trump Castle” in Manhattan, complete with battlements, a moat, and a drawbridge. The project’s architect said that the castle’s medieval-style defenses were “very Trumpish.” Potential tenants could buy into a castle residence for $1.5 million, but Trump’s dream project collapsed when the owners of the proposed site declined to participate.44
Even if the president’s backers cannot access the upper reaches of Trump Tower, they can still hold out hope that his walled-off America will protect their threatened livelihoods and culture. “Protection,” Trump proclaimed in his inaugural address, with literal and figurative connotation, “will lead to great prosperity and strength.” Sadly, for the people who have bought into it as well as for those who have not, it’s an unfathomable vision. Trump cannot wall off the nation from the findings of science, from invasive pathogens like the Zika virus, or from the ravages of monster storms, chronic floods, runaway wildfires, and killer droughts. He cannot block out the technological advances that have rendered coal mines and old-style smokestack industries largely obsolete in the United States. He cannot insulate America from the global economy, or from progress that’s well underway. And Trump cannot re-create a culturally uniform, white “pioneer stock” America through any amount of immigration restrictions or mass deportations; already, the demographic die is cast for a pluralist future.
Trump’s reactionary impulse is inevitably authoritarian, and it explains much of his overreach as president. Reactionism cannot withstand a democratic process broadly open to all voters in an increasingly pluralistic nation; it cannot withstand challenges to autocratic control over the flow of information and ideas. Hence the obsession with alleged voter fraud, the free press, and internal “leakers.” The future of America cannot, will not, be that of a walled-in nation, either literally or figuratively.
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The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
—Article II, Section 4, Constitution of the United States of America
IMPEACHMENT 101
The first thing you need to know is how impeachment works: The impeachment and removal of a president begins under the Constitution in the United States House of Representatives. An impeachment typically begins with an investigation by the Judiciary Committee. If the committee decides to investigate, it may then by majority vote recommend articles of impeachment to the full House. Members then vote up or down on each article. The House may also proceed with impeachment regardless of the Committee’s recommendations. If a majority of the House ratifies one or more articles of impeachment, the case against the president proceeds to a trial by the Senate, presided over by the chief justice of the Supreme Court. A special prosecutor, a representative from either party, or even members of the public can request an investigation, although the Committee or the full House must agree to proceed with the inquiry.
At trial, the Senate acts as both jury and judge, with the power to subpoena witnesses, issue contempt rulings, dismiss charges, set trial procedures, and overturn rulings of the chief justice. Prosecutors appointed by the House present their case to the Senate, and the accused makes his choice of counsel for the defense. There is no requirement that the accused must appear in his own defense. At the end of the trial, the Senate has the power to convict and remove the president by a two-thirds vote of those present.
A president cannot pardon himself from impeachment, and if ousted by the Senate, he immediately sheds the protection of presidential immunity and becomes subject to arrest, prosecution, trial, and conviction under state or federal criminal law. By a separate vote, the Senate can bar a convicted president from holding any future federal office. Otherwise, an impeached president, if constitutionally eligible, could run again for White House. A president can run again if he was not elected twice or if elected once he did not serve for more than two years as an unelected president.
Decisions on whether to impeach a president turn on the wisdom of Congress and do not require proof of a specific indictable crime under either federal or state law. The verdict of the House and Senate is final. There is no right of appeal or judicial review of their decisions.1
Impeachment covers not just presidents, but other federal officials, notably judges appointed for life. Since America’s founding, the House has impeached two presidents and fifteen judges. The Senate acquitted both presidents. It convicted eight of the judges.2
AMERICA’S FOUNDERS STRUGGLE WITH IMPEACHMENT
After what George Washington called the “standing miracle” of his victory over British arms, the general retired to his Mount Vernon plantation. Bouts of smallpox, tuberculosis, malaria, and dysentery and years of tense warfare had racked his body, leaving him prey to debilitating aches and fevers and a “rheumatic complaint” so severe at times that he was “hardly able to raise my hand to my head, or turn myself in bed.” Yet in 1787, Washington donned his best breeches and frock coat, powdered his hair, and pushed his body to serve his country again: this time as the indispensable president of a constitutional convention in the sweltering Philadelphia summer.3
In the span of just over a hundred days, the delegates created a radically new frame of government powerful enough to protect and preserve their fledging republic, but one with enough checks and balances to safeguard against the tyranny that Americans had endured under British rule. These learned but pragmatic politicians adhered to the later warning of John Adams that: “Men are not only ambitious, but their ambition is unbounded: they are not only avaricious, but their avarice is insatiable.” Therefore, “it is necessary to place checks upon them all.”
The framers adopted impeachment as a necessary check against tyranny. “Shall any man be above justice?” asked the influential Virginia delegate George Mason. He warned that it is the president “who can commit the most extensive injustice.”4
Although they agreed on the need for impeachment, the delegates struggled with defining the grounds for indicting and removing federal officials. During the convention debates, to specify the criteria for removing a president, delegates
