Democrats swear up and down that impeachment is the last thing on their minds.
But behind closed doors, their staffers are already drawing up target lists for 2027.
And one Democrat let slip a name on that list that will leave Trump supporters red with rage.
Democrats Keep a Whiteboard of Trump Family Targets
The Atlantic’s Matt Viser pulled back the curtain on what Democrats are quietly preparing ahead of the 2026 midterms. Congressional investigators have been gathering in a conference room in the office of US Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH), who stands in line to lead the Senate’s key oversight committee if Democrats take the chamber.
That team built a list of people in President Trump’s orbit, brainstormed witnesses, drafted information requests, and gamed out how the administration might respond.
US Representative Robert Garcia (D-CA), who could chair the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, told The Atlantic he keeps a “running list of the most corrupt things that the Trump family has done” on a whiteboard in his Long Beach home.
“There’s a lot of ideas and possible investigations on there,” Garcia said.
Then came US Representative Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ), who said the quiet part out loud. “Every single committee we have needs to be extremely aggressive in their areas of jurisdiction,” Ansari told the magazine. “People want to see investigations, prosecutions. They want to see people in jail.”
And according to The Atlantic, Ansari wants Congress to subpoena Barron Trump, the President’s youngest son, to ask about what the magazine called his reported ties to internet personality Andrew Tate.
A 20-year-old college kid. That’s who made the list.
Garcia also said Democrats plan to call White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller. He floated calling Trump himself to testify, though he admitted Democrats lack strong legal means to force the President to show up. The Atlantic reported that Don Jr sits on the target list too, over allegations about who paid for a party after his wedding.
“Nothing Democrats do next year is going to shake him,” an unnamed ally of Don Jr told the magazine. “Don is ready for what’s coming.”
The Cabinet Impeachment List Keeps Growing
The Atlantic framed all of this as Democrats showing restraint, since most of them hesitate to call for impeaching Trump a third time. But read a little further down and the restraint evaporates.
House Democrats have already filed legislation to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Education Secretary Linda McMahon, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. The magazine noted earlier efforts aimed at Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem as well.
Kennedy’s spot on that list says plenty. His offense, as far as anyone can tell, is leading the Make America Healthy Again movement and asking questions about regulatory capture that the public health bureaucracy spent decades dodging. Democrats who cheered lockdowns and vaccine mandates now want to impeach the man who champions medical freedom and informed consent.
US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) would scrap the Senate Finance Committee’s practice of issuing subpoenas only when the chair and ranking member agree. “We’re planning to be much more aggressive than we have been in the past,” a Democrat aide told The Atlantic.
And the plan includes workarounds. Democrat leaders expect the administration to fight document requests in court, so they intend to subpoena contractors and banks instead of the White House and the Treasury Department.
US Representative Jason Crow (D-CO) plays the careful, methodical voice in the story. “We’re going to be methodical about it; we’re going to be intentional about it,” Crow said. “We can’t do everything at once.”
But Crow served as one of the seven impeachment managers in Trump’s first trial. And when The Atlantic asked whether impeachment could achieve Democrats’ goal in the future, the self-described voice of caution answered, “Maybe. Maybe. We need conditions for that.”
Nancy Pelosi Ran This Same Play in 2018
Anyone with a memory longer than a goldfish has seen this movie.
Ahead of the 2018 midterms, Nancy Pelosi told the Associated Press that impeaching Trump was “not a priority” for Democrats. Voters handed her the House. Democrats then impeached Trump over the Ukraine matter in 2019 and again over January 6 in 2021, two partisan exercises that the Senate ended with acquittals both times.
The denials before the election and the impeachments after it came from the same people. So when The Atlantic assures readers there’s “little desire” to go after Trump again, skepticism is the only reasonable response.
The motive for the soft-pedaling sits right in the magazine’s own reporting. A survey of likely voters in 37 competitive House districts found only 21 percent wanted a candidate who would be a check on Trump. Democrats can read a poll. Campaigning on impeachment turns off the very voters they need, so the talk shifts to softer words.
US Representative Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) offered one. “I don’t think I’d call it retribution. I’d call it a reckoning,” she told The Atlantic.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise isn’t buying the rebrand. “The first thing they’ll do is impeach President Trump and his Cabinet,” Scalise warned at the Republican convention in Dallas. He told Fox News Digital the same thing in plainer terms: “Democrats aren’t even being shy about it. They’re telling you what they would do. I mean, they’ll impeach the president day one.”
Trump himself put it in three words during a Fox News interview. “They’ll find something.”
And maybe that’s the part worth sitting with. Garcia’s whiteboard doesn’t start with a crime and work toward a suspect. It starts with a family and works toward a charge. That’s how the Russia collusion years operated, and the Ukraine impeachment after that.
There’s a side story here about Republicans too. US Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY), who lost his primary this year, filed impeachment articles against Hegseth, and US Senator John Curtis (R-UT) called for more scrutiny of the Trump family. Establishment figures eyeing a post-Trump party have every incentive to help that effort along. But that’s a fight for another day.
White House spokesperson Olivia Wales told The Atlantic the President “is focused on retaining Republican majorities in Congress.”
The Atlantic’s own reporting describes a Cabinet impeachment list, a subpoena for the President’s youngest son, and committee rules rewritten to cut out the minority. Democrats call it a reckoning. Their 2018 record suggests it won’t stop with the Cabinet.
Sources:
The Atlantic, “Here’s Who Democrats Want to Impeach Next”
Associated Press via Washington Examiner, “Nancy Pelosi: Impeaching Trump still ‘not a priority’ for Democrats”
Fox News Digital, “Trump could face impeachment if Democrats seize House majority, GOP leader warns”
Fox News, “Trump warns Democrats will ‘find something’ to impeach him over if they win back House”
Just the News, “Scalise warns that Democrats will impeach Trump if they win control of Congress in November”
