Trump's Impeachment: An Elephant Trap for The Democrats

In the game of chess, an elephant trap is move which culminates in the white losing its queen. It starts when the player falls for a gambit- a fool's meat, a ploy, a tricky strategy. Such could be said to be the case of the Democrats who seem to keep falling deep and deeper into Donald Trump's elephant trap.

It is no news that an impeachment inquiry into allegations against US President, Donald Trump, was initiated on September 24, 2019. He was alleged to have withheld financial aid to Ukraine in order to obtain a clandestine favour (a quid pro quo- give-and-take) from Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky- an investigation into Joe Biden and Hunter Biden's involvements in the Ukrainian oil and gas industry company, Burisma.

Ever since the inquiry started it has been a tug of war between the Republicans and the Democrats. Both parties have sought to get the public's support and approval. As a result, it has torn the American populace along party lines. This leaves out the independents to take the deciding stroke. This is so important that the intelligence committee chairman, Adam Schiff, made it clear in his opening speech at the first hearing that the inquiry had to hold for the public to know "what kind of conduct or misconduct the American people may come to expect from their commander-in-chief." This embodies just how much imperative it is to have the public's support for the impeachment process. However, how's that card played out so far?

Since the start of the inquiry, all polls have suggested that the impeachment hearings have done very little or nothing at all to change the minds of Americans outside party lines to support the impeachment of President Trump. Though, many have come to believe that Trump must have done something wrong, but they still don't think he should be impeached.

Shifting sharply to the politics and politicking behind the impeachment inquiry, know that only a simple majority vote is required to impeach the President of United States at the House of Representatives. After it is passed, it then moves to the Senate for trial, where the Senators will be the jurors. Currently, the Democrats hold a majority at the House which is an indicator that Trump may be impeached come December 18 when the members will be voting on whether he should be impeached or not.

For anyone interested in the politics behind Trump's impeachment, it should be known that it will more or less be a deciding factor of the coming 2020 US Presidential elections. The election oncoming election has seen former Vice President and Democrat aspirant Joe Biden pitted against the Republican incumbent, Donald Trump. Owing to an incredible upsurge in the US economy, which has brought a tremendous increase in wages and creation of more jobs, Donald Trump has come to be a popular President with the American populace, especially blue-collar job workers, despite being known to be controversial. This has made Trump a tough man to beat in the event of election. A public conviction that Donald Trump committed the crimes of which he was alleged, would deal a big blow. Unfortunately for the Democrats, this hasn't been playing out as much as they expected.

When the impeachment moves to the Senate, it will become broader as more persons will be subpoenaed to come to testify and answer questions. As Trump hinted recently, he and the Republicans will be requesting the testimony of Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden at the trial. This may end up exposing dirts on Bidens, which could deal a major blow to his Presidential ambition. Take note that the Senate is controlled by the Republicans, which will definitely make the impeachment process spiral out of the Democrats' hold into Trump's advantage. So far, no Republican Senator has hinted that they would be voting in favour of removing the President from office.

As it stands, the Democrats are in the middle of a looming dilemma: if they fail to vote in favour of Trump's impeachment (which is improbable), they will suffer a backlash from their supporters' base and the American populace in general. This will exonerate Trump, and vindicate his narrative that the whole process is a Witch Hunt- a nitro boost to his reelection prospects!

However, if they vote in favour of his impeachment (which seems imminent), a trial will be started at the Senate. Now the twist here is that, as a two-third majority is needed to remove the President from office (a feat that has never been achieved in US history), and the Republicans holding the majority, Trump with be acquitted of the charges against him; which will also support his claim of a Witch Hunt on his Presidency. By then, the Democrats would have wasted much time and become out of energy, and yet without the desired results.

Lastly, one largely unnoticed truth is that, the involvement of Joe Biden in the inquiry and the allegation of corruption against him, is taking its toll his electability. He's points at the polls is not improving, as he faces fierce competition from his counterparts in the crowded Democrat field of aspirants. Whereas, it seems Trump has given his opponents a tough cookie to bite along with a poisoned chalice to drink from, as he keeps waltzing away with his campaign rallies and his Republican support remains unwavering.

Rhetoric: Do you think a clandestine favour as that could be [unwittingly] asked by Trump over a phone call he knew was being monitored? Don't you think there's a possibility this could even be a high orchestration by Trump? [Perhaps a conspiracy theory)

Start writing...GHHH