TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Democrats are pushing to remove Donald Trump from office under the 25th Amendment after he threatened that "an entire civilization will die" if Iran didn't back down, a statement many have described as a potential war crime.
The US president's handling of the Epstein files and, in the past week, social media posts and statements lashing out against Pope Leo XIV have only intensified the discussion.
What is the 25th Amendment?
The 25th Amendment was added to the US Constitution in 1967 to clarify procedures when a president or vice president is unable to continue in office due to death, resignation or ill health.
Though dealing with presidential incapacities had long been an issue, the amendment's creation was only sped up after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963.
The amendment has four sections. The first allows a vice president to become president if the president resigns or dies. Section two addresses replacing a vice president, and section three allows temporary and voluntary transfer of powers if the president is briefly incapacitated. This section has been previously been invoked, most recently by President George W. Bush (in 2002 and 2007) and by President Biden in 2021, during colonoscopies under anesthesia.
The fresh calls to remove Trump fall under section four of the amendment, which provides for removal from office if the president is "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office."
In this scenario, the vice president and a majority of the principal officers of the executive departments, or of another body created by Congress, can declare a president unfit for service. The vice president then becomes the acting president. This section has never been invoked.
Who is calling for Trump's removal from office?
Democrat Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland has proposed creating a commission to remove Trump, if they decide he is no longer fit to serve. Fifty other Democratic House lawmakers have co-sponsored the bill.
"We are at a dangerous precipice, and it is now a matter of national security for Congress to fulfill its responsibilities under the 25th Amendment to protect the American people," Raskin wrote in a statement on April 14.
It's not just the Democrats, but also some on the political right who are calling for the removal of the president.
Former Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a onetime fierce Trump supporter who resigned in January amid a public break with the president, wrote in support of the 25th Amendment on X on April 7 after Trump issued his civilization-ending threat to Iran.
"We cannot kill an entire civilization. This is evil and madness," she said.
Right-wing podcaster Candace Owens, once a key figure in the MAGA movement, wrote on X that the "Congress and military need to intervene," calling Trump a "genocidal lunatic."
The public is also increasingly concerned about Trump’s capacity to govern. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in late February found that just 45% of Americans think Trump is "mentally sharp and able to deal with challenges."
Why use the 25th Amendment and not impeachment?
Trump has already faced calls for impeachment in his second term. However, in the Republican-controlled House, they haven't gone far. Trump is the only president in US history to have been impeached twice — both during his first term. Both times, he was acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate.
In an interview with Time magazine on April 10, Raskin said lawmakers do not have "the means to engage in the impeachment process." [...] There is not a single Republican who has called for impeachment or indicated to us interest in impeachment at this point."
Currently, Democrats are in the minority in both the House and the Senate, though with US midterm elections in November that could soon change.
"A good deal of 25th Amendment talk is straight-out political," Mark Graber, a law professor at the University of Maryland, told DW. "It's designed to identify the Republican Party with Donald Trump in a way that will make it not easy for them to back off."
Will the 25th Amendment be invoked?
Even if the amendment is invoked, Trump could assert that no inability exists by submitting "a written declaration to the contrary." In this scenario, if the vice president and cabinet assert their position, Congress would vote on the matter, with two-thirds needed to remove the president.
While technically the amendment could be invoked, politically it is a long way off.
"Trump's Cabinet and Congress seem satisfied with what Trump is doing," said Graber. Former high-ranking officials who spoke with DW's Washington Bureau Chief Ines Pohl also expressed their doubts.
"Well, I don't think it's going to be invoked, whether it should or not," said John Bolton, one of Trump's former national security advisers during his first term in office.
"I'm a lawyer, not a shrink, so I can't really speak to that. But his problem is not necessarily mental — it's that he doesn't understand or care much about the wider world. He focuses on what benefits Donald Trump, and that shapes everything — from Iran to how he treats NATO and US allies."
Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges spoke similarly. "Frankly, I don't think there are enough Republicans in Congress to have the courage to do this for a variety of reasons," he told DW. "So it certainly seems unlikely, but it's not good for America that we're in a situation where many people think that that's a necessary solution."
Graber also thinks the 25th Amendment is unlikely to be invoked. "Until Republicans stop rallying around Donald Trump, impeachment, the 25th Amendment are simply theories," he said.
Read: Trump Says He Has Right to Disagree with Pope Leo on Iran
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