Twenty-six. That's how many articles of impeachment Rep. Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee and member of the House Judiciary Committee, filed against President Trump on Monday. Among the offenses Cohen believes rise to the level of removing a sitting president: "self-aggrandizement."
Apparently being confident in public is now an impeachable offense.
Cohen's filing reads less like a constitutional indictment and more like a progressive wish list bound in legalese. The 26 articles span military action against Iran, immigration enforcement including deportations and the use of the Alien Enemies Act, birthright citizenship policy, tariffs, presidential pardons, federal spending decisions, the removal of inspectors general, federal workforce loyalty standards, and — buried in there like a punchline the congressman didn't realize he was writing — personal financial benefits and self-aggrandizement.
Legal scholar Jonathan Turley put it plainly. Cohen, Turley wrote, "appears to believe that the problem with past impeachments has been brevity. His 26 articles of impeachment include everything short of ripping a label off a mattress, including the new impeachable offense of 'self-aggrandizement.'"
The specifics tell the story better than any commentary could. Cohen wants Trump impeached for military deployments in American cities. For taking action on the southern border. For exercising the pardon power the Constitution explicitly grants him. For imposing tariffs — a tool every president since George Washington has used. Each article, taken individually, describes either a lawful exercise of executive authority or a policy disagreement dressed up in constitutional clothing. Stack 26 of them together and the costume still doesn't fit.
Cohen's theory of impeachment treats every Trump policy the left dislikes as a high crime. Immigration enforcement isn't a policy position to be debated at the ballot box — it's an impeachable act. Trade policy isn't economics — it's grounds for removal. Personnel decisions within the executive branch, which every president in modern history has made, become evidence of authoritarianism when this particular president makes them.
The Democrats who challenged the results of the 2000, 2004, 2016, and 2024 elections now want to remove the president for "undermining democracy." Cohen included that in his articles too. The same party that spent four years insisting the 2016 election was stolen by Russia filed an article of impeachment accusing Trump of threatening electoral integrity.
What Cohen conspicuously left out of his 26 articles is any explanation of why Congress should override 77 million voters five weeks before a midterm election. The filing doesn't cite a single statute Trump violated. It doesn't name a victim. It doesn't present evidence of a crime. It presents evidence of a presidency — one that's enforcing borders, restructuring trade, and making personnel decisions that a Tennessee Democrat finds personally irritating.
Barack Obama removed inspectors general. Obama deployed military assets without congressional authorization. Obama exercised the pardon power in ways that generated controversy. None of those actions produced 26 articles of impeachment from the House Judiciary Committee.
Turley's line about the mattress label lands because it's precise. When you impeach a president for self-aggrandizement, you've moved past constitutional oversight into something else entirely. You've established that the opposing party's disapproval is itself sufficient grounds for removal. Every future president who signs an executive order the minority doesn't like, imposes a tariff the minority objects to, or fires an official the minority wanted to keep becomes impeachable by default.
Cohen filed his 26 articles five weeks before the midterms. The timing suggests this was never about the Constitution. Twenty-six articles, zero crimes, and an election around the corner.