USNews – With the electoral votes cast and the last effort to stop a Trump presidency exhausted, opponents of the incoming administration are dusting off Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution. The emoluments clause is all the rage, so much so that the Brookings Institution has released a 23-page report examining the clause and its applicability to Donald Trump’s impending presidency. Their conclusion? Unless both Trump and his children divest themselves of all stakes in the Trump Corporation, Trump will be violating the Constitution from the moment he is sworn into office.
The legal analysis here is smart and persuasive. But in the very last paragraph of the report is the one point that matters: “When this guillotine [of impeachment] might fall is a matter of political more than legal calculation.” This is the most important thing to know about the impeachment process. When – whether – it happens is a matter of politics, not law.
This is a point that opponents of Trump must come to terms with. Flights of fancy have accompanied Trump’s rise: a contested convention, a mid-autumn resignation, a three-state recount, an Electoral College coup. The idea of impeachment has the same seductive power, offering an easy out. But while Trump’s time in office may well end in impeachment, there is nothing automatic or inevitable about the process.
