President Donald Trump on August 27, 2026, at Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base in Houston, Texas (Photo Credit: NASA/John Kraus)
Donald Trump is the only president in U.S history who was impeached twice. Trump was acquitted in U.S. Senate trials both times, but according to MS NOW reporter Kevin Frey, a third Trump impeachment is a strong possibility if Democrats recapture the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 midterms. And their 2027 impeachment strategy may not end with Trump.
Moreover, Frey reports in MS NOW (formerly MSNBC), they may have some unlikely help from Republicans.
"If Democrats win control of Congress next year," Frey explains, "they'll be faced with a familiar question: Should they impeach President Donald Trump? But one of the president's most outspoken critics from within his own party has some advice for Democrats: Don't underestimate the power of impeaching Cabinet secretaries. Just last week, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky demonstrated the potential power of impeachment when he introduced a resolution targeting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth."
Frey adds, "After Massie's surprise move, House GOP leaders — who already were sending the House home two weeks early for campaign season — decided to throw in the towel and leave even sooner rather than allow the vote."
Although Massie is a Republican with libertarian leanings, he hasn't been afraid to challenge Trump at times — which led to Trump backing a congressional primary challenge against him. Massie, having lost the primary, will be leaving Congress in early January 2027.
But Frey, in his article, doesn't rule out the possibility of other Republicans joining Democrats in supporting articles of impeachment against Trump or members of his Cabinet in 2027 should Democrats flip the House.
Massie, according to Frey, "suggested there's a lesson in the whole mess" and said that "impeaching Cabinet members is highly underrated."
Massie told MS NOW, "I would think a lot of these Cabinet secretaries are going to get pardons at the end of their tenure — or the end of the president's tenure, at least."
According to Frey, Democrats "are ramping up plans for aggressive oversight investigations of the Trump administration, should they win control of Congress in the November elections."
"Already, however, some Democrats believe their party should go further than just investigating the president; they want impeachment," Frey reports. "That's an avenue the party pursued twice against Trump before, without achieving a successful conviction in the Senate, where a two-thirds majority is required. In the aftermath of those impeachments, Trump used the failed convictions to rally his base, casting himself as a martyr and playing into their fealty. That history is forcing Democrats to weigh not just whether to impeach, but whom to impeach."
Frey adds, "The GOP skittishness over defending Hegseth is suggesting an alternative approach, particularly if Democrats focus on Cabinet members who have less political loyalty from Republicans than Trump himself."
