The 25th Amendment Exists for This

The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution, Section 4, provides for the removal of a president who is "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office." It was ratified in 1967 after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, designed to address the scenario where a president is alive but incapacitated — whether by illness, injury, or mental unfitness.

It has never been invoked. It is time to talk about why it should be.

A week in the presidency

Consider a single week — the last week of May 2026. Not a month. Not a quarter. Seven days.

The president of the United States:

• Posted 60+ times on Truth Social in 14 hours, including AI-generated images of himself on Mount Rushmore, commanding a space station, piloting a Space Force cockpit, and walking alongside an alien
• Wrote a 700-word rant attacking a federal judge by name, attacking the judge's wife by name, accusing the judge of criminal conduct, and threatening to permanently close the Kennedy Center — a memorial to a murdered president — because the judge wouldn't let him put his name on it
• Compared himself to Elvis Presley, called himself "the Greatest President in History (THE GOAT!)", and offered to replace five musicians who fled his party-planning organization with himself as the headlining act
• Created a $1.776 billion fund to pay his allies — including pardoned January 6 rioters — using taxpayer money, with no Congressional authorization, no public disclosure, and no judicial review
• Had his former personal lawyer sign a document "FOREVER BARRING" the IRS from auditing him, his family, his trusts, or his businesses — ever
• Opened a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll — the 82-year-old woman two juries found he sexually assaulted — over a deposition answer two courts already deemed credible
• Said he "doesn't care" that Iran has suspended all ceasefire negotiations for a war he started, and called the talks to reopen the Strait of Hormuz — through which 20% of the world's oil flows — "very boring"

This is one week. Seven days. From the man with sole authority over the United States nuclear arsenal.

The corruption argument

Some of this is corruption — and it is corruption of a kind the United States has never seen, not even in its most cynical moments.

The $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund is not a policy disagreement. It is the president suing his own government, settling the lawsuit through his own former lawyer, using taxpayer money to create a fund for his own allies, with himself effectively controlling who gets paid. A federal judge froze the fund entirely. Three separate lawsuits challenge it. Thirty-five former federal judges asked a court to investigate whether the settlement itself was fraud. Joe Rogan — Trump's own endorser — compared it to Uday Hussein.

The permanent tax immunity is not a policy disagreement. It is the acting attorney general — who was Trump's criminal defense lawyer six months ago — signing a one-page document that exempts the president and his entire family from IRS scrutiny forever. Former IRS commissioners say there is no precedent. Tax experts call it lawless. The IRS is legally prohibited from halting an audit at the direction of the president. The attorney general did it anyway.

The DOJ investigation of E. Jean Carroll is not a policy disagreement. It is the president's Justice Department criminally investigating his own sexual assault victim over testimony that two courts already found credible, in a case where $88.3 million in jury verdicts have been upheld on appeal. The acting AG had to recuse himself because he was Trump's personal lawyer in that very case. And the investigation proceeded anyway.

This is not governance. This is a man using the machinery of the federal government as a personal weapon — to enrich himself, to punish the people who held him accountable, and to ensure that no one ever holds him accountable again.

The fitness argument

But the 25th Amendment is not about corruption. Corruption is what impeachment is for. The 25th Amendment is about capacity — the ability to do the job. And the evidence of incapacity is now impossible to ignore.

A president who is fit for office does not post 60 times in 14 hours. He does not share AI images of himself commanding a space station while a real war he started is actively escalating. He does not compare himself to Elvis and offer to replace musicians at his own party. He does not describe a national performing arts center as "rat and bug infested" and threaten to close it forever because a judge wouldn't let him put his name on it. He does not call ceasefire negotiations for a war that has killed thousands and closed the world's most important shipping lane "boring."

A president who is fit for office does not post three separate videos of the same explosion, narrating "ba ba ba ba" over each one. He does not share AI-generated images of political opponents in padded cells, surrounded by garbage, or depicted as fanged wolves. He does not skip his own son's wedding because he has "a thing called Iran."

In April, Trump posted 565 times on Truth Social. A third of those posts came at night. He posted 189 times between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. — 83% of April nights had at least one post. For comparison, at this point in his first term, he had posted 250 times in all of April. He has more than doubled his output, and the content has shifted from political messaging to AI-generated fantasy images of himself as a god-emperor of space.

This is not a political style. This is a symptom.

The war argument

On February 28, 2026, the president ordered surprise airstrikes on Iran. U.S. intelligence had assessed that Iran posed no imminent threat. Three months later, the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed. Oil is up 30%. At least 3,433 people are dead in Lebanon alone. The ceasefire has collapsed. Iran is threatening to block a second global shipping chokepoint. The deal that would have reopened the strait is dead.

And when asked about the collapse of the only diplomatic path to ending the crisis, the president said: "I don't care." He called the negotiations "boring." He said NATO allies should handle it because "we don't need" the oil. Twenty percent of the world's oil supply flows through the Strait of Hormuz. Every American pays the price at the pump. The president says he doesn't care and he's bored.

This is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. He started a war, lost interest in the diplomacy needed to end it, and told the country he doesn't care. While posting AI images of himself blowing things up from a space station.

What the 25th Amendment requires

Section 4 of the 25th Amendment requires the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare that the president is unable to discharge his duties. The president can contest the declaration, and Congress then votes — requiring two-thirds of both chambers to remove him.

The barrier is intentionally high. It should be. Removing a president outside of an election is the most serious act a democracy can undertake. It should require overwhelming evidence and broad consensus.

But the amendment exists because the framers understood that a president can be alive, conscious, and still incapable of leading. Not because he disagrees with his opponents — but because he has lost the ability to perceive reality clearly enough to make decisions that affect 330 million people and the stability of the world.

What we are watching

We are watching a 79-year-old man post AI images of himself as a space warrior while a real war escalates. We are watching him threaten to permanently close a memorial to John F. Kennedy because he can't put his own name on it. We are watching him compare himself to Elvis and offer to replace professional musicians with a speech. We are watching him use the Department of Justice to investigate his own sexual assault victim and indict a former FBI director over a picture of seashells. We are watching him grant himself permanent immunity from taxation. We are watching him say "I don't care" about the collapse of the only path to ending a war he started.

We are watching the vice president, the Cabinet, and Congress see all of this and do nothing.

The 25th Amendment was written for a president who is unable to discharge his duties. It was not written for a president whose party is afraid to use it. The question is not whether the evidence supports invocation. The evidence is posted publicly, 60 times a day, by the president himself.

The question is whether anyone in a position to act still has the courage to read it.