What Time Is the 25th Amendment Happening?

The possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment—that is, the removal of a President if they’re found to be unfit to do their job—has been brought up numerous times over the course of the Trump presidency. Today, just two weeks before the dripping Spam loaf we call our leader is to be drop-kicked from the Oval Office and hopefully into a high-security prison cell, Democrats are once again agitating for his preemptive departure.

As you may have heard, a mob of domestic terrorists moseyed past helpless security and into the Capitol building today, where they looted, waved Confederate flags and stirred up violent mayhem that resulted in one woman getting fatally shot. In response, Trump appeared briefly on TV to proclaim his love for those ransacking the Capitol, calling them “very special.” Later, he tweeted that “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long.”

Although he tepidly suggested the rioters leave, it doesn’t take an overpaid pundit to see that today’s chaos was a direct result of persistent messaging from Trump, who repeatedly called on supporters to turn up in D.C. on January 6th. It also doesn’t take a political scientist to see that Trump is following the same blueprint as all of history’s dictators, the end goal being to overturn democracy and install himself as a despot for life.

The 25th Amendment was suggested this time not by an alarmed White House insider, but by the National Association of Manufacturers, which consists of 14,000 companies. But if it sounds familiar, it’s because the 25th Amendment has been brought up habitually over the last four years in response to Trump’s reckless behavior.

In 2017, for instance, his stability was called into question when he tweeted that his “nuclear button” was bigger than that of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. In 2018, a former top aide at the Department of Homeland Security revealed in an op-ed in the New York Times that Cabinet members had discussed the 25th Amendment amongst themselves. Not long after, it was reported that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein brought it up again after the firing of FBI Director James Comey. In 2019, former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe said it was seriously considered by FBI lawyers. All of those circumstances aren’t even including the time in October when Trump contracted covid and it looked, however briefly, like he might be seriously ill.

Rep. Ilhan Omar has said that she’s drawing up articles of impeachment, tweeting, “We can’t allow him to remain in office, it’s a matter of preserving our Republic and we need to fulfill our oath.” Also, Twitter finally suspended Trump’s Twitter account, albeit temporarily. Is today really the day our 25th Amendment dreams come true? Hope springs eternal in 2021!