Donald Trump could be forced out of the White House via the 25th Amendment.
The President and his administration are coming under increased scrutiny for a multitude of reasons regarding immigration, foreign policy, and trade tariffs. And extreme measures may be taken to force the 79-year-old from office.
So here’s everything you need to know about the 25th Amendment, and how it could be used to end Trump’s presidency.
Trump’s Greenland fixation has alienated allies and supporters
Over the course of the first year of his second term as President, Trump has been fixated on the United States owning Greenland. Despite the fact that Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, one of America’s NATO allies.
Claiming it is for the sake of national security due to Greenland’s geographical location as it pertains to China and Russia, Trump has claimed it is vital that the United States owns the world’s largest island.
POTUS’ rhetoric around the Danish territory has drawn strong criticism from several European leaders, who were firmly against the idea of America annexing Greenland, especially through military force, as Trump and several members of his administration had hinted could happen.
In response to pushback from NATO countries, Trump then threatened several of the US’ major allies with 10 percent trade tariffs, which would have come into effect at the beginning of February, before being increased to 25 percent in June if the ‘complete and total purchase of Greenland’ was not reached.
Fortunately, it now no longer appears that any annexation of Greenland will be attempted, with the framework of a deal reportedly being agreed during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week.
While details of the deal remain shrouded in relative mystery, it appears to mark a major walkback for Trump regarding completely owning the Danish territory and now appears to pertain solely to American military bases on the island.
Military threats to other nations also raising concern
Following the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a military operation on January 3, Trump issued threats to both Mexico and Colombia regarding their own regimes and involvement in narco-trafficking, hinting that the US may be forced to take military action across Latin America in the same manner as they did in Venezuela.
The threats received a tidal wave of backlash from political opponents in the Democratic Party as well as American voters, who do not wish to see their country plunged into multiple deadly and costly wars.
Trump opponents propose invoking the 25th Amendment
Due to his behavior during his second term as President, as well as the recent deaths of two US citizens in Minneapolis at the hands of ICE, more and more Democrats are questioning Trump’s suitability to lead the country safely.
Trump and his administration labeled protesters and Minnesota mother Renee Good as a ‘domestic terrorist’ after she was shot and killed by an ICE agent earlier this month, while the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has claimed that intensive care nurse Alex Pretti was intending to ‘massacre’ border patrol agents, having been armed when he was attacked by them.
Pretti, it has been revealed, had a license to carry a concealed firearm and, as has been seen in multiple videos of his killing that have circulated online, at no point was he holding his firearm at the time of the incident.
Several high profile Republican congress members and senators have called for a full investigation into the shooting as pressure mounts on ICE from both sides of the political aisle and on Trump’s approach to immigration.
Trump’s increasingly harsh rhetoric when it comes to immigration and foreign policy has led to several Democrats calling for the invocation of the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.
With multiple Democrats not viewing Trump as being mentally fit to lead the country, they are prepared to go to extreme lengths in their attempts to replace him as President.
California Democrat Maxine Waters said of invoking the 25th: “He wants to control the Fed. He wants to be able to determine interest rates. He wants to be able to have the people on the governing board that will do exactly as they are told. This is extraordinarily dangerous. This is the makings of a dictator who is trying to control the entire economy.”
Fellow Democrat Ed Markey echoed Waters’ sentiments by posting: “Invoke the 25th Amendment” on X, formerly Twitter, recently in response to Trump’s attempts to annex Greenland.
What is the 25th Amendment?
Introduced in the wake of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, Section 4 of the 25th Amendment permits the transfer of authority to the Vice President, which in this case would be JD Vance.
Of course, Trump would block such a move to undermine his power, but Congress does possess the power to mandate the transfer of power to Vance if two-thirds of the Senate and the House of Representatives were to vote in favor of it.
In addition to this, under the provision of section four, JD Vance, along with a majority of the 15-member cabinet, would also have to jointly declare that Trump was unfit to perform his duties as President.
The amendment has never been used to try and remove a sitting President’s powers, however.
Trump recently stated in a letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre that he is ‘no longer thinking purely of peace’ after failing in his attempts to win the Nobel Peace Prize, blaming Norway for not awarding him the prize, despite the honor not being bestowed by the country itself, but rather the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
Despite the clamouring of some Democrats for the 25th Amendment to be invoked, it is unlikely such an event will occur, with Trump still maintaining strong support within his MAGA movement, across his cabinet, and among Republican members of Congress and the Senate.
