Toward the end of Donald Trump’s first year in the White House, Vanity Fair published a memorable piece on the dysfunctional Republican administration. It noted, among other things, that some of the then-president’s team was worried that Trump’s behavior was so erratic that they feared Cabinet members might “take extraordinary constitutional measures to remove him from office.”
In fact, according to the article, Trump heard Steve Bannon reference the 25th Amendment, at which point the then-president responded, “What’s that?”
It’s safe to say the Republican learned quite a bit about the amendment in the months and years that followed. In fact, in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack, Trump came to believe that his own Cabinet members might try to remove him from office through the 25th Amendment, and that was not a paranoid assumption: The Jan. 6 committee uncovered evidence that Cabinet secretaries had, in fact, initiated some quiet conversations about the possibility.
That was two-and-a-half-years ago. Now, as The Hill reported, the constitutional provision is still on the Republican’s mind, but not in a way that makes sense.
Former President Trump is questioning why Republicans have not sought to remove President Biden under the 25th Amendment — a move that GOP lawmakers do not have the power to use.
Trump seemed to get the ball rolling last week when he used his social media platform to ask, as part of an anti-Biden tirade, “Where is the call from Republicans for the 25th Amendment?” A day later, he added, “Republicans, call out the 25th Amendment, NOW!”
But it wasn’t until earlier this week when the former president wrote, in an all-caps harangue, “I ask, why hasn’t the Republican Party begun the process of invoking the 25th Amendment” against Biden. Trump added that he thinks it should’ve happened “long ago.”
Putting aside the details of the former president’s weak case against his successor, there’s a more pressing problem: Trump is talking about the 25th Amendment without understanding how it works. In fact, the Republican’s question is effectively gibberish. Trump’s line is rooted in the idea that GOP lawmakers have some authority to invoke the 25th Amendment. That authority does not exist. The 25th Amendment empowers Cabinet members, not members of Congress, to try to remove a sitting president if “the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” So, when Trump asks why Republicans haven’t “begun the process of invoking the 25th Amendment,” it’s because Republicans, at least in 2023, have literally nothing to do with invoking the 25th Amendment. As for why the former president is flaunting his ignorance of a constitutional process he really ought to understand, your guess is as good as mine.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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