US Voters to "Punish" Trump? Potential Path to Removal from the Presidency
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The United States midterm elections on 3 November present a major test for President Donald Trump. If the Democratic Party manages to capture majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate, Trump’s political position could come under pressure, potentially opening the way for impeachment.
Trump’s persistently high unpopularity is sounding alarm bells for the Republican Party ahead of the election. According to Jessica Taylor, a Senate analyst at the Cook Political Report, midterm elections are essentially an occasion for voters to pass judgement on the sitting president.
“If you want to voice dissatisfaction with the president, the only way to do so in a midterm election is by not voting for his party,” she said, as quoted by Reuters on Tuesday (8/9/2026).
A Reuters/Ipsos survey shows public satisfaction with Trump’s performance at its lowest point, with the economy and the war in Iran being the main sources of discontent. Trump’s net disapproval rating is also far worse than at the same point in 2018, when the Democrats seized 40 House seats.
If the Democrats take control of the House, they could use their majority power to open various investigations into the Trump administration. Democratic leaders have previously pledged to probe alleged corrupt practices they have linked to Trump.
With a House majority, the path towards impeachment would also become politically far easier to pursue.
The situation would become even more serious if the Democrats simultaneously controlled the Senate. Under the US system, the House has the authority to bring articles of impeachment, whilst the Senate holds the trial to determine whether the president should be removed from office.
This means Democrat control of both chambers of Congress would make the threat to the survival of Trump’s administration far more real, although removal would still require the support of two-thirds of senators in an impeachment trial.
Trump himself previously faced impeachment efforts during his first term. The Democrat-controlled House approved articles of impeachment in 2019, but Trump was ultimately acquitted by the Senate in 2020 after the Republican Senate majority refused to convict him.
A second impeachment attempt occurred in 2021 following the Capitol riots, but it again stalled in the Senate because Republican support fell short of the two-thirds threshold.
The contest for control of Congress this time is shaped by several factors. In the House, the Republican Party holds only a slim 218-214 seat advantage, whilst all 435 seats are up for grabs. In the Senate, roughly a third of the 100 seats are being contested, with several states that previously formed Trump’s base now finding themselves in tight races.
For Trump, the eight weeks until election day mark a crucial period: if voters use the midterm elections to punish his administration and the Democrats capture both chambers of Congress, the final two years of Trump’s term could turn into a major political battle, one that could once again lead towards impeachment.