A petition asking for President Donald Trump to be impeached has now received more than 100,000 signatures, which has brought new attention to criticism of his administration. The petition was started by a group called Blackout The System, which says it is not connected to any political party.
The group says it wants all parts of the U.S. government to look into what it believes are serious actions by the administration and to make sure leaders are held responsible if they have done something wrong. Supporters say that in a democracy, the government must check itself and act when people believe leaders have misused their power.
Even though passing 100,000 signatures makes the petition more visible and helps it spread online and in the news, it does not force the White House to reply or start any legal process. In the past, there was an official White House petition website called “We the People,” created during President Barack Obama’s time in office.
At that time, if a petition reached a certain number of signatures, the White House promised to respond. That website was used a lot during Trump’s first presidency but was later shut down after President Joe Biden took office in 2021. Because the system no longer exists, petitions today mainly serve as a way for people to show their opinions and try to build public pressure.
The White House has played down the importance of the petition. Spokesperson Abigail Jackson said the number of people who signed it is very small compared with the tens of millions of Americans who voted for Trump. She said critics are free to express their views, but suggested that the petition does not represent the majority of voters.
In recent months, calls for Trump’s impeachment have grown louder, especially after several political controversies and public debates. One issue that received attention was Trump’s comments suggesting that the United States might try to take control of Greenland. Some lawmakers, including Republican Congressman Don Bacon, warned that statements like that could possibly lead to impeachment efforts that might even gain support from members of both political parties if concerns continue to grow.
Trump has also spoken about the possibility of being impeached again. In January, he told Republican lawmakers that he believes Democrats would likely try to impeach him for a third time if they win back control of Congress in the upcoming midterm elections, showing how strongly impeachment has become tied to political control in Washington.
During his first presidency, Trump was impeached twice by the House of Representatives. The first impeachment happened in 2019 after he was accused of pressuring Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to investigate the Biden family before the 2020 election.
The second impeachment happened after the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, when he was accused of encouraging efforts to overturn the election results. In both cases, the Senate later voted to clear him, meaning he was not removed from office.
The new petition claims that Trump’s leadership shows greed, corruption, and a lack of responsibility, and says some of his policies could harm people’s rights, the country’s democratic system, and the future of the nation.
It also criticizes the administration’s handling of several issues, including immigration, veterans’ benefits, education, health care, food assistance programs, and the economy. The petition argues that many Americans are struggling and feel they cannot wait any longer for leaders to address these problems, and it calls on government officials to take action and hold the administration responsible for decisions that supporters of the petition believe have hurt the country.
