By Cliff Potts, WPS.news

In American politics, history rarely repeats—it mutates. If Democrats retake both the House and the Senate in 2026, the question is no longer whether they could impeach Donald Trump again, but whether they would—and what would happen next.

Picture the scene: a second impeachment of a twice-impeached president, this time with the numbers to convict. Simultaneously, Democrats push a long-delayed structural reform—expanding the Supreme Court to dilute the ultra-conservative supermajority built over the last decade. The constitutional earthquake that follows could reshape the United States for generations.

The Constitutional Hammer Falls

Under Article II, Section 4, the House has sole power to impeach, and the Senate the power to convict by a two-thirds vote. No president has ever been removed from office by impeachment—Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton, and Trump himself were all acquitted. But if a post-2026 Democratic Senate musters the numbers, conviction and removal would be legally clean and historically explosive.

Trump’s removal would ignite both celebration and fury. Supporters would call it justice deferred; opponents would see vengeance disguised as law. In truth, it would be both—an act of constitutional accountability and a naked assertion of political dominance.

Legal scholars note that impeachment is largely immune from judicial review (Congressional Research Service, 2019). That means the Supreme Court—no matter its composition—would likely stand aside. In practical terms, Congress would become judge, jury, and executioner of executive legitimacy.

Expanding the Court: The New Judicial Front

The U.S. Constitution sets no fixed number of justices. Congress changed the size of the Supreme Court seven times before 1869 (Library of Congress, n.d.). In recent decades, “court-packing” became taboo—a symbol of partisan excess after Franklin Roosevelt’s failed 1937 attempt. Yet if Democrats use a post-impeachment wave to add four seats, the taboo would shatter.

The rationale would sound familiar: restore balance, defend democracy, undo decades of right-wing judicial activism. The real motive would be power—reclaiming the judiciary as an instrument of progressive reform.

New justices could swiftly revisit rulings on reproductive rights, voting protections, and corporate influence in politics. Precedents like Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022) and Citizens United v. FEC (2010) might be curtailed or reversed. Administrative agencies, long hobbled by conservative courts, could regain regulatory strength.

Yet legitimacy cuts both ways. A packed Court would face cries of illegitimacy from the Right and unease from the middle. For millions, the judiciary would cease to be neutral; it would become another prize of electoral warfare.

Backlash, Retribution, and the Spiral of Power

No political system survives long when every victory feels like revenge. A Democratic impeachment of Trump—coupled with Supreme Court expansion—would unleash a right-wing counter-revolution. Republican-controlled states could pass symbolic “nullification” resolutions, threaten secessionary rhetoric, or refuse cooperation with federal mandates.

The GOP narrative would write itself: “They destroyed democracy to save it.” Conservative media would canonize Trump as a martyr, further radicalizing the base. The next Republican majority could retaliate by shrinking the Court, impeaching Democratic presidents, or purging federal agencies.

This tit-for-tat escalation erodes the informal norms that sustain constitutional stability. Once impeachment and structural manipulation become standard tools of party warfare, the American system begins to resemble the factional parliaments the Founders feared.

Political scientists have warned of “constitutional hardball”—using lawful means to achieve anti-democratic ends (Levitsky & Ziblatt, 2018). The more each party plays hardball, the less legitimacy any institution retains.

The Liberal Dream and Its Shadow

Democrats would justify these maneuvers as necessary to save democracy from authoritarian capture. With Trump gone and the Court expanded, they could pass long-blocked legislation: universal voting rights, climate action, abortion protections, campaign-finance limits, and labor reforms.

A rejuvenated Court might uphold those laws instead of striking them down. Progressive America would breathe again.

But progress purchased through procedural demolition is fragile. The precedent of manipulating the Court’s size and impeaching former presidents opens Pandora’s box. Future Congresses could repeat the tactics for opposite reasons—criminalizing protest, restricting the press, or erasing rights instead of restoring them.

Power never stays still. Every political revolution begets its reaction.

The Long Horizon: Reform or Ruin

If the 2026 Democratic majority follows through, the next twenty years could bring either renewal or collapse. Three broad trajectories stand out.

1. Institutional Escalation. Each party uses structural weapons to punish the other—expanding, contracting, impeaching, retaliating. The republic endures on paper but fractures in trust. Courts become battlegrounds; elections become existential.

2. Managed Reform. After the initial shock, moderates in both parties broker guardrails—fixed 18-year judicial terms, supermajority rules for court expansion, clearer impeachment thresholds. Stability returns, albeit under a bruised Constitution (Brookings Institution, 2023).

3. Democratic Renewal. The crisis awakens civic engagement. New generations push for a 21st-century constitutional convention, codifying rights to vote, privacy, health, and climate security. The old order falls so that a more egalitarian one can rise.

The outcome depends on political restraint—a scarce resource in modern Washington.

The Moral Crossroads

If Democrats seize the opportunity to remove Trump and rebuild the judiciary, they will also inherit responsibility for the republic’s soul. They can wield accountability as justice—or as vengeance.

Franklin Roosevelt once warned that “we must be the great arsenal of democracy.” But arsenals can destroy as easily as they defend. To save democracy from authoritarian decay, Democrats must prove that constitutional power can still serve principle, not merely partisanship.

The alternative is an endless constitutional war where each side fights to the last institution standing.

The United States has weathered civil wars, depressions, assassinations, and impeachments. What it has never survived is apathy—the quiet surrender of belief that our institutions can be repaired. Whether 2026 becomes the year America rebuilds or unravels will depend not just on who holds the gavel, but on whether anyone still believes in the rule of law itself.

References (APA 7th ed.)

Brookings Institution. (2023). Term limits: A way to tackle the Supreme Court’s crisis of legitimacy. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/articles/term-limits-a-way-to-tackle-the-supreme-courts-crisis-of-legitimacy/

Congressional Research Service. (2019). Impeachment and removal. R46013. https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46013

Levitsky, S., & Ziblatt, D. (2018). How democracies die. New York, NY: Crown.

Library of Congress. (n.d.). The Supreme Court of the United States: Changing the number of justices. Retrieved from https://www.loc.gov

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