Tom Steyer ‘75 Campaigns to Impeach Trump

Hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer ‘75 launched a campaign to impeach President Trump in October. Since then, Steyer has spent over $20 million funding advertisements aimed towards the American public that encourage people to sign his petition for impeachment. His controversial campaign has amassed more than 4 million signatures. In 2013, Steyer founded NextGen America—originally called NextGen Climate—a political organization focused on fighting for environmental issues, immigrant rights, affordable health care, prosperity and equality.

"There are a number of things that have happened that bolster our case that Trump is dangerous and that he is unfit for office. We’re trying to activate and enable the voice of the American people.”

In his advertisement, Steyer said that he launched the impeachment campaign because he believes that Trump is a “clear and present danger who is mentally unstable and armed with nuclear weapons.” He accused Trump of serious crimes, including “taking money from foreign governments, obstructing justice at the FBI and bringing us to the brink of nuclear war.” Steyer’s advertisements have been displayed in some of the most prominent venues in the country, including Times Square.

Steyer believes Trump to be dangerous and unfit, and his administration to be lawless. Some examples include his attitude towards offshore drilling, immigrants and a fair electoral process.

As of now, Steyer said that the campaign is “building momentum in a variety of ways.” Along with the 4.2 million people who have signed the online petition, the campaign has garnered more support from congress. A month ago, 58 members of Congress voted in favor of impeachment, a drastic uptick in support for impeachment compared to when the campaign first started. “I think we’re changing the national debate because we’re seeing a debate on the fitness of this president on a daily basis, with the White House pushing back in what I would think of in a somewhat panicked mode,” he explained. “There are a number of things that have happened that bolster our case that Trump is dangerous and that he is unfit for office. We’re trying to activate and enable the voice of the American people.”

Steyer also noted that his time at Exeter affected his impeachment campaign. Prior to becoming Student Council President, he participated in a strike where students didn’t attend class to protest the Vietnam war. “The first year I was there was highly political and there was a traumatic rift between the faculty and the students,” he said. “The idea of rebelling against an entrenched, national leader or leadership is something that was actually part and parcel of being an Exonian in the early ’70s.”

He went on to describe the “extraordinary” opportunities and facilities students at Exeter have. “With that incredible opportunity and incredible gift comes with, in my mind, an equal amount of responsibility,” he said. “My hope in any critical, national debate like this one, is that the students at Exeter and the faculty at Exeter will realize that they are in a privileged position and their responsibility is to be especially responsible citizens.”

Despite the nation’s recent interest in his campaign, many Exeter students are not aware of his activism. Exeter’s Democratic Club hasn’t affiliated its aims with Steyer’s campaign and has not discussed Steyer’s efforts during weekly club meetings. “In general we’re focusing more on campaigning for Democrats, not trying to impeach Trump or get other Republicans out of office,” co-head Bryce Morales said. “We’ve talked a little about politicians’ personal lives, such as Al Franken and Roy Moore, but not in terms of Steyer trying to impeach Trump.” In Morales’s opinion, there isn’t enough evidence concerning Russian collusion or a “lack of fitness” to impeach Trump.

Lawani mentioned that he supports the increase in discussion about Trump’s policies. “The campaign itself to me instantiates the role of a citizen in our democracy. Amid responses to Trump’s presidency, calling for increasing violence and censorship, both antithetical to fundamental American principles, it is refreshing to hear someone using the channels outlined in the Constitution for citizens to effect change in government,” he said. “Not by vigilante violence, nor by shutting opinions, but by using facts and logic, as presented in [Steyer’s campaign] video, to convince a populace and, through this, our legislature.”

Along with his headline-grabbing plan to impeach the president, Steyer and his organization, NextGen America, are using other channels to affect the current political climate. In last year’s Virginia election, NextGen America reportedly helped to register more than 20,000 voters, an effort that will be expanded to ten states and over 250,000 voters this year. Steyer announced on Monday his plan to contribute another $30 million to get young voters participating in the upcoming midterm elections.

Considering the Exeter community’s great tendency to discuss political events, English Instructor Mercedes Carbonell described the silence as a perplexing absence. “I don’t even know if [Steyer’s campaign is] an influence, negative or positive,” Carbonell said. “I’ve not have any students mention anything about him.” She also acknowledged that although Steyer’s ideas are “visible” on campus, his campaign isn’t “gaining any traction from the student body.”

Steyer’s aim to impeach Trump has sparked varying opinions from those aware of his campaign. “If we impeach Trump, Mike Pence will become President,” lower Cristal Reyes said. “So I have mixed feelings.” Upper Chandler Jean-Jacques echoed Reyes’s sentiments, saying that impeaching Trump wouldn’t solve the problems in the Trump administration.

Steyer addressed these concerns, saying that “we need to solve the problem at hand” and to worry about a Pence presidency afterwards. “Impeachment is a long educational process that inherently must end,” he explained. “If you’re going to remove the President of the United States, It cannot be done without the awareness and education and the will of the American people.” He went on to describe the impact of Trump’s potential impeachment on his successor. “It’s not like firing a mid-level executive in a company. It’s a gigantic upheaval in the United States of America, it leaves the country in a different place from where we started,” he said. “It would leave anybody who’s the next president in a different place, he or she, than when the process began.”

Lawani also disagreed with the campaign video’s facts and logic about Trump’s inadequacy. “Though I believe Trump’s behavior and speech to be at times shockingly brutish, few of his actions have been really harmful to the populace, and none illegal,” he said. “The Russian collusion is yet to be proved and until then the standard of innocent until proven guilty should be duly applied. His foreign policy, though characterized by the same brutishness and aggression, is defensible and to me, in the case of the recent Jerusalem move, sometimes advisable.”

Though news of Steyer’s campaign has not reached everyone on campus, the possibility of Trump’s impeachment has received some support. “If the Mueller investigation produces evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors on the part of Donald Trump, then I hope he will be impeached,” Republican Club adviser Townley Chisholm said. However, Chisholm noted that Trump’s impeachment wouldn’t affect Exeter individually. “An impeachment of Donald Trump would have huge effects on the whole country,” he noted. “I can’t really see how PEA would be affected in any particular way, though there would be a collective sigh of relief until Mike Pence is inaugurated.”

At the same time, Jean-Jacques said that if people found out about the campaign, they would find his work “inspiring” because he is an Exeter alumnus. “It’s interesting because it makes me think that somebody I go to school with could do something similar to this in the future,” she said. “Especially because he was in the same shoes as we are in now.”

Before graduating from Exeter, Steyer found some words of inspiration on a plaque in the Assembly Hall that says: “Exeter is not a warm nest.”

“[Those words tell] the meaning of an Exeter education…and what is expected from graduates once they go out into society and start to live adult lives,” he said. “So when I think about the meaning of an Exeter education, it is what you’re learning here as a student. And when I was a student, there is inherent bargain that if you’re going to get this great deal, you are then going to go out and ‘strike some shrewd blows for civilization.’ That’s the deal.”

When asked what students should do to support his campaign, Steyer said, “Our solution to every one of these political problems, including impeachment, is more democracy. If you look at our organization, we are all about grassroots. We are all about enabling the will and voice of Americans to be joined together to get done what we need to get done.”

Steyer encouraged Exonians to become more involved community members. “Do the things that good citizens do which is be informed, be engaged, write letters and participate if you’re eligible to vote.”