Primary primers: while Trump’s impeachment now seems forgotten, it damaged his political capital and reduced his sway in the Republican party

To say that 2020 has been an eventful year is an understatement. A global pandemic, national uprisings against racial injustice, an economic collapse – these are just the major items. It’s easy to forget that earlier this year, President Trump survived an impeachment trial. Below, Julia Azari explores how this has affected the 2020 election. She argues it appears to have damaged his standing as an individual and made him even more reliant on the Republican Party, thus giving him less influence in shaping the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and reducing his political capital in an election year.