Impeachment adverts funded by billionaire Tom Steyer will run during Trump's State of the Union address

'How bad does it have to get before Congress does something?' asks donor

Billionaire Democratic donor Tom Steyer has funded a new advert promoting Donald Trump’s impeachment, which is set to run during his first State of the Union address.

The hedge fund manager has ploughed $40m (£29m) into a campaign against the US President that includes national adverts, a petition, and billboards in Times Square.

Mr Trump is expected to use his landmark speech on Tuesday to address immigration, national security and jobs. Experts anticipate he will cite the good performance of America's economy in recent months as evidence of his success.

But the new advert will draw attention to less well-received features of the Republican’s first year in office.

“He can fire an FBI director who won’t pledge his loyalty. He can order the deportation of a million immigrant children,” the advert says, referring to Mr Trump’s decisions to sack the former intelligence boss James Comey and end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme.

“He can threaten an unstable dictator armed with nuclear weapons,” the advert says, referencing inflammatory statements the US President made about North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Un.

“He can go into a rage and enter the nuclear launch codes. How bad does it have to get before Congress does something?”

Mr Steyer has said the US President has committed eight impeachable offences, including conspiring with Russia to commit crimes against the US. Mr Trump’s administration has fiercely denied improper links with Moscow, which are currently under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.

“The debate is no longer whether he has met the standard for impeachment, but whether members of Congress will allow him to get away with it,” Mr Steyer said in a statement.

“Waiting for a politically convenient time to acknowledge this jeopardises the stability of our country and pushes us further away from our democratic values. We cannot wait until tomorrow, or next month, or next year. The time to act is now.”

Earlier in January, the San Francisco billionaire ruled out running for the Senate or the California governor’s office, ending months of speculation.

“I’m not going to run for office in 2018 — that’s not where I can make the biggest difference,” Mr Steyer told journalists in Washington. “My fight is not just in California, my fight is in removing Donald Trump from office and from power.”

A senior administration official said the US President will be “speaking from the heart” during his State of the Nation speech, which will begin at 9pm EST on Tuesday (midnight GMT).

The President will discuss jobs and the economy, infrastructure, immigration, trade and national security, the official added.

Mr Trump will also refer to what he sees as the benefits of reducing the corporate tax rate from 35 per cent to 21 per cent.