The Transactional Radical
Did you know that only one president has ever been impeached twice?
You did know, of course. That’s because said president’s critics (ahem) are forever reminding people of it.
What those critics usually don’t mention is how odd it is that the offenses for which the man in question was impeached were so different in nature.
If I told you that a certain public official had gotten himself in serious trouble twice, you would assume that both instances had to do with the same sort of malfeasance. Look no further than Sen. Bob Menendez, who dodged a conviction on federal bribery charges in 2017 only to land under federal indictment again in 2023 for—you guessed it—bribery.
It’s an unusual leader who’s capable of committing high crimes or misdemeanors in two distinct genres of corruption. But Donald Trump is an unusual man.