Late-Night Blast Targets Top Impeacher

A public figure being interviewed amidst a crowd of reporters and onlookers

When a sitting president demands Congress “expel the bum” and hints a rival lawmaker belongs in jail, it shows how far Washington’s political war has drifted from serving the people.

Story Snapshot

Donald Trump is urging the House to expel Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin over past impeachment fights and new clashes.
Trump and conservative host Mark Levin accuse Raskin of leading endless plots to remove the president from office.^[1]
Raskin says he is doing his job by challenging what he calls Trump’s abuses of power and unconstitutional actions.^[2]^[4]^[7]
The Constitution makes expelling a member of Congress rare and very hard, so this fight is mostly about raw power, not process.

Trump Escalates His Feud With Raskin

President Donald Trump recently launched a blistering attack on Representative Jamie Raskin, calling him a “loser in life” and urging the House to “expel the bum.”^[1] Trump’s late-night social media post echoed conservative commentator Mark Levin, who claimed Raskin was plotting impeachment if Democrats ever gained power in the House.^[1] Trump also suggested that if President Joe Biden had not helped Raskin in the past, Raskin “would be in jail right now,” though he did not cite any specific crime.^[1]

Coverage of Trump’s comments describes them as punishment for Raskin’s central role in earlier impeachment efforts and his continuing attacks on Trump’s second-term agenda.^[1] Trump has framed Raskin as obsessed with impeachment and as someone who wastes taxpayer money trying to overturn the will of voters.^[1] Supporters of the president see this as long-overdue payback against a lawmaker they view as part of the entrenched “resistance” inside Washington. Critics see the president’s language as another attempt to intimidate opponents instead of debating them.

What Raskin Has Actually Been Doing

Representative Raskin has been one of Trump’s most aggressive critics in Congress, but his actions fall squarely within normal legislative work. During past impeachment proceedings, he helped draft and argue articles that accused Trump of abusing the power of his office, as reflected in the official House impeachment records.^[7] In hearings and speeches, he has argued that Trump “has coddled and encouraged” extremism and violated basic constitutional limits on presidential power.^[3]

Raskin’s more recent fights with the Trump administration focus on policy and oversight, not secret plots or street protests. In one hearing, he blasted what he called a “$1.776 billion political slush fund” inside the Department of Justice, saying the anti-weaponization fund could be used to reward Trump allies and even January 6 defendants.^[2] He argued that the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service had created an unlawful settlement that protects Trump, his businesses, and a network of supporters from proper investigation.^[2] He demanded subpoenas for top Justice, Treasury, and tax officials, which is a standard oversight tool.^[2]

Constitutional Oversight vs. Criminal Accusation

On foreign policy, Raskin has also accused Trump of acting outside the law. After Trump launched a military campaign in Iran without prior congressional approval, Raskin issued an official statement calling the strike unconstitutional and a violation of Congress’s war powers.^[5] He framed the action as yet another example of a president ignoring the separation of powers and using the military without the people’s representatives signing off.^[5] Agree or disagree, that is textbook constitutional oversight, not a private scheme.

Raskin has also pushed back on Trump-era immigration enforcement when he sees mistakes or abuse. In one Capitol Hill hearing, he raised the case of a Maryland man who was deported after what the administration itself called an “administrative error.”^[5] Republicans at that hearing focused on judges they said were blocking Trump’s deportation agenda, while Raskin highlighted how real people can get crushed when the system rushes or cuts corners.^[5] To many Americans across the spectrum, this clash fits a pattern: a federal government that seems careless with both borders and basic fairness.

Why Expulsion Talk Hits Deep Public Nerves

Under the Constitution, Congress can expel its own members only by a two-thirds vote, and it has used that nuclear option just a handful of times in all of American history. The bar is high because the founders wanted lawmakers to answer mainly to voters, not to rival politicians eager to silence them. That is why most “expel this member” demands function as political theater and pressure, not as realistic legal threats. Trump’s call on Raskin fits that long pattern.

Still, the language matters. When a president says a member of Congress should be in jail without offering clear evidence, it feeds a growing belief on both left and right that Washington has turned into a club of powerful insiders who use the law as a weapon, not a shield. Conservatives see a system that hounded Trump for years while ignoring border chaos and inflation. Liberals see a system that shrugs at money slush funds and special deals for the well-connected.^[2] Both sides watch these fights and suspect that no one at the top is really fighting for them.