More than 20 Democratic members of Congress have called for President Donald Trump's removal from office under the 25th Amendment, citing his erratic behaviour and threats against Iran. The calls come after Trump posted a vulgar warning on Easter Sunday telling Iran to 'Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell', and later threatened that 'a whole civilization will die tonight' if Tehran does not agree to a deal on the Strait of Hormuz.
Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan wrote on social media: 'After bombing a school and massacring young girls, the war criminal in the White House is threatening genocide. It’s time to invoke the 25th Amendment. This maniac should be removed from office.' Ilhan Omar of Minnesota called Trump an 'unhinged lunatic', while Mark Pocan of Wisconsin demanded the amendment be invoked 'RIGHT NOW', adding that Trump is 'too unhinged, dangerous, and deranged to have the nuclear codes'.
Even former Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, now a Trump critic, joined the calls, writing: '25TH AMENDMENT!!! Not a single bomb has dropped on America. We cannot kill an entire civilization. This is evil and madness.' Yassamin Ansari, the only Iranian American Democrat in Congress, described Trump as 'a deranged lunatic, and a national security threat to our country and the rest of the world'. She urged Republicans to 'put party affiliation and blind loyalty to Donald Trump aside and take action immediately to restrain him'.
Despite the Democratic outcry, Republicans have remained largely silent. The chances of Trump's cabinet invoking the 25th Amendment to install Vice President JD Vance are considered close to zero, as few Republicans have voiced dissent even as Trump threatens to target civilian infrastructure in Iran, which would breach international law. Kurt Bardella, a former Republican congressional aide turned Democrat, said: 'All that’s standing in the way of the complete annihilation of a civilisation or not is if there are a dozen or 13 Republicans who have a spine, a soul, a conscience and the fortitude to do what they know is right.'
The situation echoes the Biden presidency, when Republicans spent years contending that Joe Biden was in cognitive decline, only for a poor debate performance to end his re-election campaign. Critics now question whether lessons have been learned, as Trump's conduct raises similar concerns about fitness for office.
