17 April—Not that there ever had been any doubt among intelligent, reasonable people, but now there simply cannot be any doubt whatsoever that Donald Trump is not simply a perverse, irrational, unreasonable, power-hungry, power-crazed, ignorant, self-dealing, vindictive rogue president, but a perverse, irrational, unreasonable, power-hungry, power-crazed, ignorant, self-dealing, vindictive absolute monarch.

Since America purposefully doesn’t have monarchs absolute or otherwise, however, Trump is simply a run-of-the-mill rogue dictator. Like most dictators, he came to power by not totally illegitimate means, having hoodwinked gullible people who (rightly or wrongly) perceived their nation to be in need of correction.

Dictators and dictatorships as a rule don’t endure for too long. Dictatorships usually end when the dictators are assassinated or exiled, or simply when they flee to other dictatorships or otherwise hospitable venues.

In our country, the Constitution and the laws flowing from it are supposed to preclude the rise of dictators. In Donald Trump’s case, the Constitution appears to have failed miserably. But, for better or worse, we don’t—or aren’t supposed to—sanction assassination or exile.

In all events, America has no experience in dealing with dictators, at least with home-grown ones. But perhaps—with lots of determination, hard work, and lots and lots of luck—the Constitution can once again be the salvation of America: In particular, Article II on impeachment and succession and Amendment XXV on the chain of succession.

And as soon as 2026. But it won’t be easy.

Any way an objective person looks at it, Donald Trump certainly has committed any number of impeachable offenses. But in order for impeachment to succeed, the Democrats will have to reclaim a majority in the House of Representatives. Any majority—even a single vote—will do, because all it takes is a simple majority in the House to impeach a federal official. But the bigger the majority, the better. Just to be sure.

A considerably bigger—but not in theory impossible—hurdle is getting a two-thirds Democrat majority in the Senate. The Democrats, currently in the minority, hold 45 seats. The two Independent senators are certain to vote with Democrats on impeaching Donald Trump, for a total of 47. Of the 33 Senate seats up for election in 2026, 20 are currently held by Republicans. Thus, if Democrats can take all those seats, they’ll have 67 votes, the two-thirds supermajority required for conviction.

The two-thirds supermajority is of the senators present, by the way. And if Republican senators aren’t too stupid or scared to read the writing on the wall, Trump can be removed shortly after the 120^th Congress convenes and the Democrat Speaker of the House and Democrat Senate Majority Leader can be elected.

But Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution specifies that the Vice President assumes the presidency if the President should be removed, dies, resigns, or is unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office. Since J.D. Vance, while perhaps less mercurial or vindictive than Donald Trump, is more opportunistic and not to be trusted either, he must be impeached concurrently with Trump. The Constitution is silent on joint impeachment, but there’s no reason the Chief Justice of the United States, who sits as the impeachment judge, and a majority of the associate justices shouldn’t go for it—and not only because they don’t approve of Trump.

Assuming Trump and Vance are convicted and removed from office, then, Amendment XXV kicks in and makes the Speaker of the House the new President of the United States. Of course, the speaker of a Democrat-majority House of Representatives will be a Democrat. Probably, anyway, given the way Democrats screw up. And presumably the new appointed Vice President will also be a Democrat—or at least a Republican or Independent acceptable to the Democrat simple majorities of both houses needed to confirm the appointment.

Presumably, too, the new Democrat POTUS will fire the previous Republican POTUS’s appointees and appoint new ones who will almost certainly to be approved by the new Democrat-majority Senate.

So it all depends on the Democrats getting their act together. And should they be able to do that, if you don’t think a Democrat administration with Democrats controlling both houses of Congress will be a problem, consider the adage “out of the frying pan into the fire” . . .