Congress votes to end Trump
Executive summary
Congress has clear constitutional tools to "end" a president’s term or bar a former president from future office—impeachment with conviction, and the 25th Amendment’s incapacity procedures—but both paths have high thresholds and political constraints that have already proven difficult in Donald Trump’s case [1] [2] [3]. The Senate’s February 13, 2021 acquittal (57–43) illustrates the numerical and partisan realities: a majority to convict is possible, but the two‑thirds supermajority required to remove and the separate Senate vote to disqualify a person from future office remain steep hurdles [4] [5] [6].
1. Constitutional mechanisms that Congress can use to “end” a presidency
The House can impeach by simple majority and the Senate can convict and remove by a two‑thirds vote; after conviction the Senate may hold a subsequent simple‑majority vote to disqualify the individual from holding future federal office [1] [6]. Separately, the 25th Amendment’s Section 4 allows the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare the president unable to discharge the powers of the office, temporarily transferring authority to the vice president while Congress must decide the dispute—Congress must act within 48 hours to receive notice and then two‑thirds of both houses can keep the vice president in charge [3].
2. What history and recent precedent make clear about feasibility
The Senate trial following the House’s January 13, 2021 impeachment produced a 57–43 guilty vote—an unusual majority but short of the 67 votes needed to convict—demonstrating a scenario where a bipartisan majority to find guilt existed yet fell short of removal because of the constitutional two‑thirds threshold [5] [2]. That outcome also shows that even with strong partisan and public pressure, political loyalties and calculation in the Senate can block removal or disqualification [5].
3. Current politics and structural obstacles in 2025–26
In a second Trump presidency, congressional options are further complicated by party control and political incentives: Republicans hold material influence in both chambers at times referenced in coverage, and a president popular within his party reduces the pool of senators willing to join the votes necessary for conviction or disqualification [7] [8] [9]. Congressional interventions such as war‑powers resolutions or limits on executive actions have been attempted with mixed success, underscoring that legal authority alone does not guarantee enforcement when political alignment is lacking [9] [10].
4. New efforts and ongoing measures in Congress
House resolutions to impeach have been introduced in the current Congress—H.Res.353 is a 119th‑Congress measure listed as impeaching President Donald J. Trump—indicating that the impeachment tool remains live and being used as a political and constitutional instrument even in a second term [11]. But the mere introduction of articles of impeachment does not equate to conviction or removal; those require the Senate supermajority described above and are subject to timing, political will, and procedural choices in both chambers [1] [4].
5. Limits, unanswered questions and the role of courts and criminal cases
Congressional votes are not the only pathway: criminal prosecutions occur in state and federal courts outside Congress’s removal powers, and convictions there do not automatically remove a sitting president—impeachment is the constitutional process for that political remedy [2]. Reporting documents legal and political disputes around Trump’s earlier prosecutions and convictions but do not resolve how criminal verdicts would interact with congressional options in practice; sources do not establish a categorical interplay beyond constitutional and statutory frameworks already cited [12] [7].
6. Bottom line: Congress can act but the bar is high and politics dominate
Constitutionally, Congress can vote to impeach, to convict and remove a president, and—after conviction—to disqualify a person from future office, and it can be the arbiter under the 25th Amendment if the Cabinet and vice president invoke it [1] [6] [3]. Practically, the Senate’s 57–43 acquittal in February 2021 and contemporary party dynamics show that achieving removal or disqualification against Donald Trump requires overcoming substantial partisan resistance and securing supermajorities that, so far, have proven elusive [5] [4] [8].