Donald Trump’s administration is facing another round of calls to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office in the wake of his remarks to an unprecedented assembly of the nation’s military leaders.
Trump’s Cabinet and then-Vice President Mike Pence faced similar demands in the aftermath of the January 6 attack, when a mob of the president’s supporters stormed the halls of Congress to derail the certification of an election he lost.
And it’s not the first time Trump has faced calls to step down since he returned to the White House in January. Liberal commentators and critics on social media routinely demand his Cabinet invoke the 25th Amendment.
According to what the 25th was designed for, no, he can’t. He’s not incapacitated in the sense of being in a coma or otherwise fully non compos mentis. He’s just an asshole and a criminal in the early stages of dementia.
The process for the 25th requires cabinet members or legislators to write a letter stating their concerns about his health rendering him unfit to carry on. If he can reply to that letter, even with a scrawled Sharpie “NO U!” then it’s game over.
The correct processes to remove Trump are impeachment, or if the system is too corrupt for that to work, other means reserved to the citizenry.
He’s absolutely not in the early stages of dementia. He was in the early stages back in 2016.