Trump reportedly views impeachment as a political winner, résumé blemish

(Image credit: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

published 7 October 2019

In a call with House Republicans on Friday, President Trump portrayed the House impeachment inquiry as a mixed bag, predicting it will "make Kevin speaker" — give Republicans control of the House after the 2020 election, elevating House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — but acknowledging that being impeached is a "bad thing to have on your résumé," Axios reported Sunday.

People who have spoken to Trump in recent days disagreed on whether Trump believes he will be impeached, Axios says, with one source saying Trump thinks he can pressure vulnerable Democrats into voting against articles of impeachment, but most advisers are warning him that impeachment is imminent and Senate Republicans will keep him from being convicted and removed. Trump's comments to House Republicans "perfectly encapsulate how Trump feels about it," Axios reports: "He believes it could help him get re-elected and win back the House. But he doesn't want the history books recording Donald Trump as an impeached president."

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney is genuinely bullish on the political upside of impeachment, predicting numerous times that Trump will win a 45-state landslide in 2020 after the Senate acquits him, Axios' Jonathan Swan reports, citing three sources. Mulvaney's landslide prediction "is far from a consensus in Trump's orbit," and polling doesn't support it, Swan says, "but his voice is one that the president hears every day and could bolster how Trump views the political dynamics of impeachment."

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Meanwhile, the "torrent of impeachment developments has triggered a reckoning in the Republican Party," The Washington Post reports, "paralyzing many of its officeholders as they weigh their political futures, legacies and, ultimately, their allegiance to a president who has held them captive" and "whose orders are often confusing and contradictory." Read more about how congressional Republicans are trying to survive impeachment at The Washington Post.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.