Trump as prelude, and the challenge ahead

Charles Blow recently put into words what millions who have been following the news must be thinking.  Since we've known for months that the Russian regime interfered in our election, including by spreading fake news designed to undermine Hillary, Trump should not be regarded as legitimately President, at least until a thorough investigation is completed.  Blow calls for a "pause" in Trump's administration -- a cessation, at least until the investigations are finished, of his authority to carry out any substantive actions.

The problem, of course, is that no one has the authority to impose and enforce such a "pause", nor does Blow suggest how it could be done, other than that "the American people must demand" it.  (That, in turn, is pretty much what's been happening anyway, as the public marches in protest and deluges Congress with furious opposition to various items of the Republican agenda as they come up.)  If, as already seems clear, Trump owes his election to Russian interference, then he could be impeached, especially if he collaborated with the Russian efforts.  But that would leave us with Pence occupying the Presidency, which would presumably be just as illegitimate, since he won the Vice Presidency in the same "hacked" election.

If we determine that the election result was actually illegitimate due to foreign interference, the only way to truly rectify that would be to hold a new election.  But I'm not aware of any Constitutional basis for doing that, and if it were done by some ad hoc process, then further questions of legitimacy would arise.

In reality, I'm convinced Trump will be impeached within a few months at the most, because the Republicans in Congress would actually prefer Pence in the Presidency, and no rational person can be happy at having Trump's bizarre and dangerous personality in such a position of power.  (Oliver Bullough at The Guardian argues that Putin himself didn't intend this outcome and is alarmed as well.)  If so, the illegitimacy angle needs to be emphasized as much as possible, for practical reasons.  History will remember Trump as a loud and colorful but ultimately trivial footnote, a mere brief prelude to the Pence administration.  Our challenge will be to keep up the intensity of protest and resistance that Trump has inspired, after Trump is no longer there.  The fact that Pence owes his position to the same illegitimate election will help to do that.