Impeachment of President Donald Trump

Overview

The Impeachment of President Donald Trump occurred on December 18th, 2019. Following a weeks-long impeachment inquiry into the President Trump's conduct in a July 2019 phone call with the President of Ukraine and his subsequent withholding of congressionally approved aid, the House impeached the president in a vote mostly along party lines, 230 voted for and 197 voted nay, on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Background

Impeachment Inquiry

On September 24th, 2019, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced that the House of Representatives would launch an impeachment inquiry into the president focused on the withholding of federal aid to Ukraine.

Vote

Following a nearly three-months long investigation, concluding with almost 11 hours of debate on the House floor, the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Trump. Democrats and Republicans voted almost along party lines, with 229 democrats and one independent voting "yea" and 195 republicans and two democrats voting "nay."

Developments

Donald Trump's Reaction

During the final debates, President Trump tweeted about the vote numerous times. On December 18th, 2019, Trump tweeted,^[1] "In the end here, nothing happened. We don’t approach anything like the egregious conduct that should be necessary before a President should be removed from office. I believe that a President can’t be removed from office if there is no reasonable possibility that the Senate. ….won’t convict and remove the President – Then the House should not be Impeaching the President in the first place. If this is the new standard, every President from here on out is impeachable.” Andy McCarthy @FoxNews So well stated. Thank you!" The first tweet received more than 85,000 likes and 19,000 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).

I'm Just in the Way

Later that day, he tweeted^[2] an image macro meme featuring a black and white photograph of Trump with the words "In reality, they're not after me, they're after you. I'm just in the way" written in impact font. The post received more than 338,000 likes and 93,000 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).

People responded to the image by changing the text in the meme for a humorous effect. In a tweet,^[3] YouTuber Dolan Dark removed the top text so that the meme read "I'm just in the way." The tweet received more than 31,000 likes and 1,700 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below, left).

YouTuber Dr Grandayy responded^[4] to the tweet by posting a text blackout variation in which the text reads, "Hey." The tweet^[4] received more than than 35,000 likes and 1,700 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below, center).

Twitter user @KadzYT tweeted^[5] a Lord Marquaad E variation with the image (shown below, right).

The meme is not the first time the phrase has been connected to Donald Trump. In early 2019, Imgflip^[11] user swaggadocious shared an image of Trump with his back to the camera and phrase, "They are not after me, they are after you. I am just in their way, and I refuse to move." The post received more than 1,200 views in less than one year (shown below).

The photograph originally comes from a 2015 New York Times^[12] article entitled "Donald Trump Is Not Going Anywhere."

Online Reaction

Ahead of the vote and after the vote, people began posting memes about the event. For example, on December 19th, 2019, Redditor ^[6] derzierz posted This Post Was Made By X Gang meme that showed Trump's face superimposed on a peach with the caption "imagine getting put inside a peach." The post received more than 26,000 points (89% upvoted) and 170 comments in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Several threads on Reddit received more than 135,000 points, including threads on /r/politics, ^[7] /r/news,^[8] /r/pics^[9] and /r/worldnews.^[10]

Many commented on the impeachment on Twitter, as well. Republicans and supporters for Donald Trump criticized the impeachment (examples below).

Critics of President Trump praised the vote, expressing their delight (examples below).

Related Memes

Donald Trump in a Peach / Donald Trump Is a Peach

Donald Trump in a Peach / Donald Trump Is a Peach is a series of memes that generally feature a pun comparing the word "impeach" and Trump being "in a peach."

Search Interest

External References