Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, introduced a bill on Tuesday that seeks to kick-start the removal of President Donald Trump through the 25th Amendment — a long-shot effort that, while unlikely to succeed, aims to put renewed focus on the president’s mental fitness and recent rhetoric.
The legislation, which was offered with 50 Democratic co-sponsors, would establish a Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of Office. That body would be composed of 17 members tasked with determining whether the president is incapacitated — “either mentally or physically” — and unable to discharge the powers and duties of office, as called for in Section 4 of the 25th Amendment.
In introducing the bill, Raskin pointed to Trump’s recent rhetoric on the war in Iran, his actions in the Middle East and the photo he posted on social media depicting himself as Jesus. (Trump later claimed he was portraying himself as a doctor.)
“Public trust in Donald Trump’s ability to meet the duties of his office has dropped to unprecedented lows as he threatens to destroy entire civilizations, unleashes chaos in the Middle East while violating Congressional war powers, aggressively insults the Pope of the Catholic Church and sends out artistic renderings on-line likening himself to Jesus Christ,” Raskin said in a statement.
“We are at a dangerous precipice, and it is now a matter of national security for Congress to fulfill its responsibilities under the 25th Amendment to protect the American people from an increasingly volatile and unstable situation,” he added.
Raskin’s move comes days after dozens of Democrats — and some MAGA figures — called on the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment after the president’s threat warning that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” if Iran didn’t meet his requests by his deadline to reopen the Strait or Hormuz.
“I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” the president added.
Ultimately, Trump announced a two-week ceasefire, temporarily stepping back from those threats.
Despite the mounting calls to invoke the 25th Amendment, it is highly unlikely Trump would be removed through that mechanism, which has never been used to end a presidency in U.S. history.
To be successful, the vice president and a majority of the president’s Cabinet would have to agree that the president “is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” If the president were to dispute that assessment — as Trump almost certainly would — at least two-thirds of the House and Senate would have to agree that the president is unfit to serve to remove him from office.
In effect, using the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office is a higher burden than impeachment and conviction in the Senate.
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Still, Democrats clearly see political upside to calling for the 25th Amendment. The discussion puts the focus on Trump’s erratic behavior, and puts much of the onus for action on the president’s Cabinet, not Congress.
Republicans, however, have been quick to swat away the calls for the 25th Amendment.
“The TRUE madness is calling for the 25th to be used against one of the greatest presidents our nation has ever seen!” Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., wrote on X last week. “@POTUS is making the entire planet safer.”
The resolution calls for the commission to “carry out a medical examination” within 72 hours of adoption.
This is not Raskin’s first move zeroing in on Trump’s mental fitness. Last week, the Maryland Democrat called on the White House physician to conduct a “comprehensive cognitive evaluation” of Trump.
“At a time when our country is at war — especially when the war was initiated by the President without congressional declaration or consent — the American people must be able to trust that the Commander-in-Chief has the mental capacity to discharge the essential duties of his office,” Raskin wrote in a letter. “I therefore request that you conduct a comprehensive cognitive assessment of President Donald Trump, provide those results to Congress, and make yourself available to brief Congress on your findings.”
The White House brushed off the request.
“Lightweight Jamie Raskin is a stupid person’s idea of a smart person,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in response. “President Trump’s sharpness, unmatched energy, and historic accessibility stand in stark contrast to what we saw during the past four years when Democrats like Raskin intentionally covered up Joe Biden’s serious mental and physical decline from the American people.”
Mychael Schnell is a reporter for MS NOW.