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It seems like the current motto of American politics is “another day, another impeachment attempt.” Starting with Trump’s supposed (emphasis on the word supposed) collusion with the Russian government to win the 2016 election, talks of his impeachment have grown steadily since the earliest days of his presidency. The most recent controversy to join the onslaught of anti-Trump allegations came in the form of a whistleblower complaint from somebody within the “intelligence community,” which stated that the president withheld foreign aid to the Ukraine in order to pressure them to investigate the business dealings of Joe Biden’s son in the country- a controversy you can read more about in our article linked here. But while many may be quick to presume Trump’s guilt based on the sheer number of accusations brought against him, the truth of the matter is that none of these accusations are really the fundamental motivation behind Congress’s desire to impeach the president. In reality, there is only one, very simple factor behind the Democrats’ push to remove Trump from office: they are jealous. Allow me to explain.

Take a step back in time to right before the 2016 election. Think about not necessarily who you wanted to win, but who you thought would win. Chances are you’d say Hillary Clinton. Most news outlets predicted a landslide victory, and many supporters of Clinton as a candidate already began to hail her as the US’s first female president in the weeks leading up to the election. Even current president Obama made jabs at Trump’s campaign on the Jimmy Kimmel show. Clinton’s victory was nearly guaranteed. I say nearly because, despite all odds, Donald Trump managed to pull off one of the most impressive comebacks in American political history, winning the election by 77 electoral votes. And speaking of electoral votes, the very first controversy of Trump’s presidency was due to him having won the election based on the electoral vote despite him having lost the popular vote, causing people to take to the streets in protest of a perfectly fair system that our country has had since its inception. Soon, allegations of Trump having colluded with Russia to win the election began to circulate, leading to a 674-day investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into whether or not this actually occurred. Ultimately, this investigation concluded with a resounding “no collusion” stated directly in Mueller’s report. During this time, reports also surfaced that Trump apparently committed tax fraud, leading Democrats to insist that he should hand over his tax returns, despite the fact that there is absolutely no requirement for him to do so. The sheer number of accusations that have been made (and subsequently disproven) against Trump should strongly indicate his innocence, yet the Democrats continue to maintain their firm stance on wanting the president impeached. 

Again, this whole impeachment charade comes back to jealousy. The Democrats were so sure that they would be the ones to win the election, that they couldn’t possibly anticipate or accept any other outcome. Which is a rather selfish stance to take, as it essentially seeks to disregard the natural process of democracy in this country. The people voted for Trump, the people wanted Trump as the president, but the Democrats are attempting to completely upend the election process. And speaking of the election process, I firmly believe that the Democrats’ desire to impeach Trump is motivated not only by their jealousy for Trump’s success in the 2016 presidential race, but also his impending success in the 2020 race. Even though many people think of Trump as a controversial figure- and rightfully so- he is nonetheless popular. In the first quarter of 2019, Trump raised $30.3 million dollars, which was about equal to the top two fundraising democrats (Harris and Sanders) combined. Trump’s total money on hand for his reelection bid is nearly 85 million, more than that of Sanders, Warren, and Buttgieg combined. Trump routinely holds crowds of over 10-15,000; meanwhile other democratic candidates are lucky to have these numbers more than once or twice a year, if at all. Trump has a substantial following, and the Democratic party knows this. They are aware that they run the risk of failing to win the populous over through a fair and democratic election, so they have decided to instead attempt to circumvent this process in favor of simply throwing Trump out of the race. 

Whether or not you support our current president, it isn’t hard to see that the impeachment process is more than a little ridiculous. The basis for wanting Trump out of office is loose at best, and corrupt at worst. Trump won fair and square, and disliking a candidate is not grounds for removing him from office. Ultimately, the Democrats will likely do nothing more than make themselves look silly by carrying on with the impeachment process- something that may once again contribute to them losing the bid for the oval office next year.