Had Trump been impeached for the third time
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Executive summary
Yes: by early January 2026 the House of Representatives had moved to impeach Donald J. Trump for a third time—formal text of articles labeled H.Res.537 was published by Congress, and the 119th Congress carried resolutions to impeach the president (H.Res.353 and H.Res.537) [1] [2]. That House action is distinct from Senate conviction, a threshold never reached in Trump’s prior impeachments in 2020 and 2021 [3] [4].
1. The raw fact: the House lodged a third impeachment resolution
The Library of Congress congressional record shows at least one 119th‑Congress resolution expressly impeaching Donald J. Trump and exhibiting articles of impeachment to the Senate—text that proclaims “Donald J. Trump… is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors” (H.Res.537) [2], and Congress.gov lists H.Res.353 in the 119th Congress described as impeaching the president [1], establishing beyond doubt that the House took formal impeachment action in this Congress.
2. What “impeached” means in practice and how this compares to prior rounds
Impeachment by the House is the lodging of formal charges, not removal; removal requires the Senate to convict by a two‑thirds vote [5]. That distinction is crucial given Trump’s two prior impeachments: the first in late 2019 that led to a Senate acquittal in February 2020, and the second in January 2021 where the Senate again fell short of the two‑thirds threshold, voting 57–43 to convict on the insurrection charge but not meeting the constitutional requirement for removal [3] [4].
3. Competing narratives and contemporary reporting
Some contemporary reporting framed the political environment as fraught but noted a lack of sustained, serious impeachment efforts after Trump’s return to office—Newsweek reported that “there have been no serious impeachment proceedings initiated against Trump since his return to office,” reflecting a view that talk and threats of impeachment were more prevalent than full prosecutions immediately after his return [6]. The New York Times documented Trump’s own warnings that he expected a third impeachment if Democrats won the House, underscoring the partisan stakes in any such move [7]. Those accounts highlight political context: impeachment votes frequently follow partisan winds and electoral arithmetic as much as narrow legal findings [8].
4. Legal framing, standards and past Senate reasoning
Scholars and official annotations emphasize that impeachment is judged by Congress’s interpretation of “high Crimes and Misdemeanors,” not solely by indictable criminal conduct; debate in prior Trump trials showed House managers and defense counsel clashed over whether the Constitution requires proof of a separate federal crime [9] [10]. The Constitution Annotated and legal observers noted that failure to tie allegations to specific statutory crimes was among the reasons cited by some senators in prior acquittals, a precedent likely to shape Senate deliberations if a third trial were to proceed [9] [10].
5. Bottom line and what remains unresolved
The House’s publication of articles (H.Res.537) and the presence of impeachment resolutions in the 119th Congress (H.Res.353) establish that a third formal impeachment by the House occurred [2] [1]; whether that action will result in a Senate trial, a conviction, or substantive legal consequences remains unresolved and depends on Senate votes and legal arguments—outcomes that historically have favored acquittal in Trump’s cases so far [4] [3]. Reporting that emphasizes there have been “no serious impeachment proceedings” after his return [6] reflects differing judgments about timing and momentum, not the factual existence of House articles that, as of these sources, impeach him.