Impeachment: Donald Trump's opponents take first steps to remove him from his job early

Opponents of President Donald Trump have taken the first steps to try and remove him from his job early.

Mr Trump is due to be in charge of the United States until president-elect Joe Biden officially takes over on 20 January 2021.

But after the scenes last week when his supporters broke into the Capitol building in Washington DC - leading to rioting and five people losing their lives - a group of politicians say he isn't fit for office and they want him removed before his time as president expires.

The Democratic party want Mr Trump's vice-president, Mike Pence, to use special powers to remove the president from office.

If that fails, then they will push forward with a process called impeachment, which is something Donald Trump has faced before, but no US president has ever been impeached twice.

What is Donald Trump accused of?

Lots of people in America have been shocked by what happened last week when a group of Donald Trump's supporters attacked the Capitol when senior lawmakers were gathering to make Joe Biden's election win official

Ahead of the attack, Donald Trump had spoken to a big crowd, repeating his false claims that the election - which he lost - was unfair.

He even encouraged them to march on the Capitol while politicians were working there .

After the attack started, and the criticism of his role in it began, Mr Trump did eventually tell people to "go home now" but still called those who broke into the Capitol "patriots" and "very special".

Calls for Mr Trump's resignation, removal from office or impeachment grew among Democrats and some Republicans - Mr Trump's own political party - in the days following the riots.

They say his behaviour shows Mr Trump isn't fit to be president, that he doesn't respect the rules and laws of the US and needs to be held responsible.

"The president represents an imminent threat to our constitution, our country and the American people, and he must be removed from office immediately," Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

What is the 25th amendment?

The current vice-president is Mike Pence

On Monday, Democrats presented a plan to formally ask Vice-President Mike Pence to kick out the president removed by his own party using a law called the 25th Amendment,.

It allows the vice-president, and senior members of the cabinet, to declare a president unable to perform his duties.

Vice-President Pence is said to be opposed to the idea.

Politicians in the House of Representatives - one half of the US Congress which creates and passes laws - will get a chance to vote for this plan on Tuesday.

"The president's threat to America is urgent, and so too will be our action," senior Democratic politician Nancy Pelosi said.

After the vote, the Democrats said they will give Mr Pence 24 hours to remove Mr Trump from office before they move toward impeachment.

What is impeachment?

Democrats have introduced an article of impeachment against US President Donald Trump for his role in last week's deadly invasion of the Capitol.

"Donald John Trump engaged in high Crimes and Misdemeanours by wilfully inciting violence against the Government of the United States," the resolution reads.

They say a vote on the article will go ahead in the House of Representatives on Wednesday unless Mr Trump resigns or is removed by the 25th Amendment before then.

Impeachment proceedings are a usually a pretty rare event in the US and are a final check on the president's power. Only three President's have been impeached, including Donald Trump.

The United States Congress - the part of the US government that writes and brings in laws - can put the president on trial for a number of offences including "treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanours".

The storming of the Capitol building has put senior politicians on edge during the final days of Mr Trump's presidency

For a president to be removed, he or she needs to be impeached by half the politicians in the House of Representatives (currently controlled by Joe Biden's party) and then found guilty by two thirds of those in the Senate (controlled by Donald Trump's party until 20 January).

Donald Trump was impeached in 2020 over claims he abused his power to ask a foreign government to investigate the family of Joe Biden, but when it came to the Senate trial, he easily won the support of the politicians in his party and stayed in power.

No US president has ever been impeached twice.

The White House has dismissed the impeachment threat as "politically motivated", but Mr Trump has made no public statements since he was banned from several social media platforms on Friday.

Does everyone agree?

No. Many politicians on both sides of American politics are very angry about what happened - and even some of those who've supported Donald Trump in the past say he's gone too far.

However, most experts don't think it's likely that there will be enough support to remove him.

While there is support for this investigation, politicians from Mr Trump's party argue the focus should be on moving forward with the next president's inauguration, and that there isn't enough time to get this sorted in the final days of Mr Trump's time in office.

Others say they worry that having a big trial - which would get a lot of attention - would only serve to divide the country even more.