Is it a wise move to try to impeach Donald Trump again?

So here we go again, another effort to remove Donald Trump from office is under way – with the current president looking likely to be the first White House incumbent to be impeached twice.

Democrats in the House of Representatives have charged him with one count of “incitement of insurrection” over the riot at the US Capitol last week – with Trump having already become the third president in US history to be impeached by the House of Representatives but acquitted in a Senate trial. That was over two counts laid down around 12 months ago: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. That is quite the record.

With less than two weeks left in his term, Trump may be impeached again but he will certainly not face a trial in the Senate before Joe Biden replaces him in the Oval Office.  The House is expected to take up the impeachment resolution on Wednesday or Thursday, after first trying to convince vice president Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment of the US constitution to remove and replace Trump (Pence has signalled no intention towards doing so).

The argument for taking up this rushed action is that Trump is too dangerous to leave in office any longer. Or, taking the longer view – that there is a moral obligation to put on record objection to Trump's actions in riling up the crowd that stormed the US Capitol. A benchmark in the history book for future generations.

There is merit to both aspects of the idea, and certainly there are plenty of supporters for both. But as with any high political move, there are an equal number of disadvantages. First, the process is rushed – or the meat of it will be delayed – which isn't fitting of an element of US political life that is traditionally used sparingly, and certainly not twice in such a short space of time. Full deliberation is supposed to be the default setting.

Beyond that, Trump's reputation has certainly been damaged by events on Capitol Hill in a way that – arguably – he hasn't at any point during the rest of the term. So if Trump is finished, what is the point of this move? It may only succeed in offering Trump a rehabilitation, conversely. A chance to let his base know he is still the outsider, being persecuted by the "establishment". There was a time last week that a future political career for Trump looked a very slim prospect - will it be the same when this process is done?

Let's not forget that Trump gained the second-most votes in US presidential election history last November. Yes, Biden scored millions more – but Trump significantly improved his total vote count from 2016. Shifting from nearly 63 million votes to 74 million would be seen as a tremendous rise in any other year.

So with Biden needing to bring the country together – is impeachment worth it? Especially with Republicans already talking about it as “revenge” by the Democrats for Trump’s four-year term? That will be down to the representatives in Congress.