Rep. John Larson (D-CT) has introduced 13 articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, House Resolution 1155, to save the nation from a worse tyranny than provoked July 4, 1776. 

Trump has said and done appalling things no other president has dared—not even close. 

What other president has proclaimed in the manner of Napoleon’s self-coronation that the only limit on his infinite extraconstitutional powers is his “own morality,” and doubted his constitutional obligation to honor his oath of office “to preserve, protect, and defend” the Constitution of the United States?

What other president has murdered nearly 200 alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific without even providing evidence of their crimes to the public?  

What other president has threatened the death of the 6,000 year-old Iranian civilization, which has encompassed Cyrus the Great’s emancipation of Jews from the Babylonian captivity and Omar Khayyam’s timeless Rubaiyat? 

What other president has initiated and collaborated in extraconstitutional, Hitlerlike criminal wars of aggression or genocide, for which Nazi leaders were sentenced to death by the Nuremberg tribunal?

What other president has suppressed freedom of speech and association on an industrial scale to retaliate against universities, lawyers, journalists, and lawfully present aliens for refusing to join Trump’s claque? 

What other president has kidnapped a foreign head of state, killing scores in the process?

What other president has militarized domestic law enforcement by concocting national emergencies divorced from reality in Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Minneapolis to deploy the National Guard?

What other president has illegally deported immigrants without due process to torture chambers in a foreign country?

What other president has commercialized his pardon power as if he were a Sotheby auctioneer selling a Hieronymus Bosch painting?

What other president has usurped the congressional power of the purse, including serial violations of the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 and illegal invocation of the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, to impose exorbitant tariffs ultimately paid by American consumers?

What other president has by executive order attempted to jettison our cherished constitutional right to birthright citizenship?

What other president has flouted the orders of federal courts?

What other president has shrieked for the impeachment of judges who handcuff his lawlessness? 

What other president has demanded the execution of six Members of Congress—all honored veterans—for communicating the truth that the Uniform Code of Military Justice requires disobedience to clearly illegal orders?

What other president has exploited the powers of office for billions of dollars in personal or family enrichment indistinguishable from bribery or extortion?

What other president has refused to faithfully execute laws passed by Congress which he dislikes? 

This is only the tip of the iceberg. Trump’s impeachable offenses are a way of life at the White House. 

The Constitution deputizes Members of Congress as first responders when tyranny or dictatorship are afoot in Article I, section 2, clause 5 in the guise of “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” The owlish statesman Benjamin Franklin at the Constitutional Convention explained that impeachment was an enlightened substitute for assassination. “With impeachment,” he elaborated, “the national executive would get a trial. If he was guilty, the punishment would be removal from office, not death. If he was innocent, then he would be exonerated, and his administration would no longer be tainted by scandal.” 

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Congress should not idle like Nero while the Constitution is in flames. Members should be inspired by the 56 signatories to the Declaration of Independence who signed their death warrants to secure unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness promoted by government by consent of the governed. 

Trump must be impeached and removed from office immediately before it is too late. He is a dictator, pure and simple, who may well seek to disrupt the 2026 congressional elections by illegally invoking the Insurrection Act to dispatch the military to seize voting machines and occupy voting places.  The Trump-orchestrated January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol to prevent Vice President Mike Pence from counting state-certified electoral votes showed Trump will move heaven and earth to remain in power. 

Our constitutional dispensation glorifying the rule of law and liberty may be destined to pass away.  But it is the duty of Congress to be the last, not the first to surrender.