In all of the United State’s history, there has yet to be a president who was impeached and removed from office as a result. President Trump’s latest actions are threatening that fact.

Since 1991, the United States has been investing in Ukraine in an attempt to strengthen the country and allow it to be more involved in Europe and Euro-Atlantic structures. This has created a sort of loyalty between the two countries as the US has been giving them financial aid.

Allegedly, President Trump reached out to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in an attempt to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, who is one of his rival candidates in the 2020 election. He told President Zelensky to work alongside General William Barr and the President’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. 

There had been a previous claim of corruption that had been dropped, and President Trump wanted to know why. It was a pressured conversation as the President refused to give the usual financial aid to Ukraine until he found what he was looking for.

A member from the intelligence community discovered the phone call and complained about the breach of safety and laws. This person’s identity is being kept secret, and they are now known as the “whistle-blower”. A nine-page paper was written up to detail the alleged wrongdoing of President Trump. 

There has now been a second whistleblower whose identity is also being kept secret, but it is known that they are from Ukraine. The whistleblower has requested to testify in writing rather than in person in order to keep their identity secret to protect from President Trump’s threatening tweets.

On September 24th, the Democratic Congressional leaders called for an impeachment inquiry. This would not necessarily remove the President from office because the House of Representatives would have to have majority vote to impeach him and move the trial to the Senate, and the Senate would have to have a two-thirds vote to remove him from office. 

Olivia Smith, a Junior at Oakdale High School expressed her opinion on the outcome of the impeachment inquiry from a democratic perspective: “Sadly, I don’t think that there’s much we can do because of the way that  things are turning out right now…I think that Trump will not be impeached, but there are definitely things that he needs to change and fix, but there’s no one else that we have in power right now who can help.”

The fact that the House is Democratic and the senate is Republican causes concern for those hoping President Trump will be impeached. The concern is because it would require two-thirds of the Senate which supports Trump to be convinced he was caught in “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors” as explained in the Constitution. 

Garret Steele, a Republican, Junior, explained, “I think that they [democrats] have come up with this hoax to get Donald Trump impeached even though he has improved the employment rate  (and he has made improvements) like.with the border security being better as ever then it was.”

Right now, the House of Representatives is gathering articles of proof of President Trump’s alleged wrongdoings. The next step will be a voting period where the members will vote on whether it is enough information to impeach President Trump.. If the Senate votes to impeach the President as well, he will be removed from office. If they vote to acquit him, he will finish out his 4-year term.

Will President Trump be impeached and removed from office as a result of his alleged wrongdoings? That is for the House of Representatives and Senate to decide.