Trump's team war-gaming for an impeachment fight

• Democrats don't control the House now, but they're already signaling that they're eager to drag Trump through another impeachment.
• In a warning shot Monday, Michigan Rep. Shri Thanedar introduced seven long-shot articles of impeachment against Trump for how he's dealt with immigration, humanitarian aid and judicial rulings.
• On Friday, Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff became the first swing-state senator to signal support for impeaching Trump.

The big picture: The threat of impeachment has added urgency to the Trump administration's push to get as much of his agenda through Congress as possible before the 2026 midterms — especially his plan to extend his 2017 tax cuts.

• The threat of another impeachment also could help Trump's team motivate his fickle base to turn out in elections without him on the ballot.
• McLaughlin said it's a clarion call to House Republicans to set aside their differences and back his economic platform.
• "We need to pass the tax cuts and avoid a recession," McLaughlin said. "That's the high stakes here. We cannot lose the midterms."
• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently told conservative podcaster Tucker Carlson that "the real danger here if there were a midterm loss — and I don't think there has to be — you know what's going to happen ... [The] Democratic House is going to go immediately to impeachment for something."

Zoom in: Democrats are under pressure from their base to oppose Trump more forcefully, and vowing to impeach Trump likely would help Democrats raise money from grassroots donors and elevate Democratic lawmakers' national profiles.

• But some Democratic leaders and strategists believe they need to moderate in order to peel away middle-of-the-road swing voters who went for Trump in 2024 — and who Democrats need to win elections.

Zoom out: Impeachment was a back-burner issue for Trump's team even before the 2024 election. One senior Trump adviser said last year that the mere threat of a Democrat-led House with a Trump presidency was extra motivation to make sure the House would wind up in GOP hands.

• Unlike Trump's first term, one senior adviser said, some Democrats' push to temper the calls for impeachment might carry the day this time. They "have largely learned their lesson. But it depends on who wins the primaries," the adviser said.
• "Democrats have their own problems," the adviser added, referring to divisions between moderates and progressives who are more inclined to seek impeachment.

• "They have an internal war, and the outcome might do more to define the general election than anything we're doing."

Reality check: There are no standards for impeachment beyond what the House decides is an offense worthy of charges.

• Impeaching a president requires a simple majority vote in the House, but it takes 67 votes in the 100-member Senate to remove a president from office, which has never happened.
• Democrats are only a few seats seats away from retaking the majority in the 435-member House, which would give them the power to start an impeachment inquiry.

An impeachment is disruptive, but it ain't what it used to be to Trump, a second adviser to the president said.

• "Ooh, impeachment," the adviser said mockingly. "They already did it twice and it did nothing."
• White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt affected a similar nonchalance Monday when asked about impeachment and the articles filed by Thanedar: "Who the hell is this lunatic?"
• Lawyer David Schoen, who defended Trump in his first impeachment over leveraging aid to Ukraine, said he thought the president "would care. It would be yet another effort at derailing the agenda he was elected to pursue."
• However, Schoen added, "I think he also would recognize that while some on the far left would cheer it, it would likely help him politically on the backdrop of the previous two efforts and the other attacks the past four years, which I believe propelled many voters to vote for him."