President Donald Trump suggested Sunday that House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) be impeached, despite the fact that members of the House of Representatives cannot be impeached under the U.S. Constitution.
Trump, who has been accused of violating the Constitution by waging war on Iran without congressional approval, appeared unfamiliar with constitutional law regarding lawmakers in Congress.
Trump's Social Media Post
“Hakeem Jeffries, a Low IQ individual, said our Supreme Court is ‘illegitimate.’ After saying such a thing, isn’t he subject to Impeachment?” Trump wrote on Truth Social Sunday. “I got impeached for A PERFECT PHONE CALL. Where are you Republicans? Why not get it started? They’ll be doing this to me! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
Jeffries' Statement on the Supreme Court
Jeffries had called the court “illegitimate” in a statement, referring to it as the “Trump Court” after it invalidated a Black-majority congressional district in Louisiana as an illegal racial gerrymander. The decision, which Jeffries deemed “unacceptable,” dealt a serious blow to the Voting Rights Act.
Jeffries later attributed Trump’s post to “Jeffries Derangement Syndrome.”
Constitutional Context
House and Senate members can be expelled with a two-thirds majority vote, but impeachment under the Constitution is reserved for the president, vice president, and “all civil Officers of the United States,” which is interpreted to include federal judges and Cabinet members.
In threatening Jeffries, Trump appeared to forget his own reactions to Supreme Court decisions, including when he said two of his nominees (Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett) “sicken me cause they’re bad for our country” after they voted against his tariff powers.
