Recall Trump’s Congressional Enablers This Year
The most memorable line from Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration as president was his “American carnage” characterization of the United States.
That was in the wake of Barack Obama’s eight White House years when the net job gain was 11.6 million, corporate profits set records, and the number of Americans lacking health insurance dropped by 15 million.
“American carnage” was so detached from the reality of the time that former President George W. Bush, sitting behind Trump on the Inaugural platform, said to others afterward that Trump’s speech was “some weird s**t."
Trump’s Impact: From Inauguration to Instability
But if not then, American carnage seems an apt description now. Trump is creating it. That’s why millions of protesters regularly take to the streets, the courts are flooded with lawsuits, and members of Congress, as U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski candidly told her Alaska constituents recently, “are all afraid. I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice, because retaliation is real.”
In a Washington interview she went even further.
Can Members of Congress Be Recalled?
November 2026 seems an eternity away, if that’s the first realistic opportunity for the public to replace quaking members of Congress with more courageous legislators like Murkowski. Murkowski needs reinforcements. Now. In 2025.
Stiffen a few legislators’ backbones by making them fear something more threatening than Trump’s wrath—the public’s wrath in a recall election. And do it as soon as state laws permit.
Thirty-nine states provide that opportunity. Here’s where you can find the states and the laws governing recalls.
Can members of Congress be recalled by the voters who sent them there?
The Constitution doesn’t say, and because it is silent, many legal scholars assume recall doesn’t apply to members of Congress.
But the Constitution does say, “Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members.” Would the House refuse to unseat a member who lost a recall election? Would the House dare refuse to seat someone who won a legally-recognized recall?
Why a Recall Movement Could Work
Recalling a member of Congress takes us into a murky, untested legal environment. But everything about Trump—his refusal to concede the 2020 election, his obvious use of the White House to enrich himself, his usurpation of the powers of Congress and flaunting of the courts—takes the law where it’s seldom, if ever, been.
Despite the legal hurdles, a congressional recall movement would have positive benefits. Among them:
It would channel the public’s growing activism in response to Trump’s assault on the Constitution.
It would focus an intense and continuing public spotlight on the culpability of Trump’s enablers.
It would mobilize opposition for the 2026 elections.
And possibly, it would achieve the most important immediate goal, scaring more current House and Senate members into finally standing up to his excesses. Just a few Republican dissenters, possibly only three or four in each house, would deny him a congressional majority.
A multi-state recall campaign could be a decisive new weapon for the resistance to wield against Trump.
We might even give the recall movement a name. Something like…The Campaign to End American Carnage.
Comments? Criticism? Contact Joe Rothstein at jrothstein@rothstein.net
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