What to Know About the 25th Amendment as Lawmakers Call for Trump’s Removal

President Donald Trump’s decision to jointly bomb Iran on Feb. 28 despite internal warnings of retaliation and without a clearly articulated rationale surprised the American public and lawmakers. So have his decisions to rail against American allies, offer varying timelines for American withdrawal, and assassinate dozens of the country’s leaders as well as seemingly target civilians and civilian sites, to which Iran has retaliated by choking off the world’s most important energy corridor, dramatically raising prices around the world. Trump’s possible next move, which he has threatened will come Tuesday, has led some to deem him unfit for office.

Read More: Inside Trump's Search for a Way Out of the Iran War

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran,” Trump posted on Easter Sunday, threatening once again to bomb Iran’s civilian power plants and bridges. “There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH!”

Trump set Tuesday at 8 p.m. E.T. as the deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz or face U.S. bombs, despite what he has called “productive” talks towards a cease-fire. Israel has already attacked Iranian civil energy infrastructure, including Iran’s South Pars gas field and oil depots across Tehran, potentially violating international humanitarian law. Trump’s open threat of what could also constitute war crimes has led some lawmakers and critics to call for his Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D, Conn.) posted, “If I were in Trump’s Cabinet, I would spend Easter calling constitutional lawyers about the 25th Amendment. This is completely, utterly unhinged. He’s already killed thousands. He’s going to kill thousands more.”

“Even blowing up a fraction [of Iran’s bridges and power plants] will kill thousands of innocent people who work in those power plants and travel on the nation’s roads. That’s also a war crime,” Murphy said in other posts. “And for what? To force Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz WHICH WAS OPEN BEFORE TRUMP STARTED BOMBING IRAN??? This is pure insanity. It won’t work. It will just permanently stain America. GOP leaders should call Congress back into session this week to end this war.”

Iran’s Embassy in South Africa, as well as other Iranian embassies around the world, echoed Murphy’s response to Trump’s post, urging, “Seriously think about the 25th amendment, Section 4.”

The 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution establishes procedures for presidential succession and for replacing or declaring a President unable to perform their duties. While highly unlikely, and unprecedented other than temporary voluntary uses, here’s what to know about the 25th Amendment and calls for its invocation against Trump.

What is the 25th Amendment?

The 25th Amendment, which “provides for the prompt, orderly, and democratic transfer of executive power,” is broken down into four sections. Section one provides that if the President dies or resigns, the Vice President will fill his position. Section two requires that the President nominate a new Vice President to take office in the case of a vacancy.

Section three states that if the President is incapacitated or anticipates becoming incapacitated, such as due to illness, he can volunteer to temporarily transfer his powers and duties to the Vice President.

Section four allows the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet to declare the President unable to discharge his duties and instead vest those powers and duties in the Vice President. This section might be invoked in the case that the President is unable or unwilling to declare himself incapacitated. Congress can also determine by a two-thirds vote whether to permanently remove the President or to return the President to his duties.

Since the 25th Amendment was ratified in 1967 following the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, sections one, two, and three have been invoked on a handful of occasions. Section two was invoked in 1973 when Gerald Ford was appointed Vice President after Spiro Agnew’s resignation, and sections one and two were invoked in 1974 when Ford became President after Richard Nixon’s resignation and to appoint Ford’s Vice President.

Presidents have also voluntarily relinquished their powers several times under section three of the amendment. In 1985, President Ronald Reagan transferred power to Vice President George H.W. Bush for eight hours as he underwent cancer surgery. In 2002 and 2007, President George W. Bush temporarily transferred power to Vice President Dick Cheney during colonoscopies. And in 2021, President Joe Biden transferred power to Vice President Kamala Harris for 85 minutes during a colonoscopy.

But section four, which outlines the process for involuntary removal of a sitting President, has never been invoked. It is this section that Trump’s detractors are now pointing to as they say his latest ultimatum, which Iran has rejected as an “incitement to war crimes” and which comes amid reported negotiations towards a cease-fire, is evidence of Trump’s “insanity.”

Calls for invoking section four grow

“The 25th Amendment exists for a reason. The President of the United States is a deranged lunatic, and a national security threat to our country and the rest of the world,” Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D, Ariz.) posted early Monday. In another post early Monday, Ansari questioned the reported U.S.-Israeli strikes that hit Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, “Why are we bombing a university in a city of 10 million people?”

Other Democratic lawmakers echoed Ansari’s call. “The emperor has no clothes,” Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D, N.M.) posted on Sunday night, alongside a screenshot of Trump’s post. “Time for the #25thAmendment. Congress and the Cabinet must act.”

Several Republicans and former Trump allies have also called on lawmakers and Trump’s Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment, especially as Trump previously described Vice President J.D. Vance as having a “less enthusiastic” view of waging war on Iran.

Former Congressman and prominent Never Trump Republican Joe Walsh posted, alongside a screenshot of Trump’s threat, “His Easter morning post. And just 2 days ago, one of his ‘religious advisors’ compared him to Jesus Christ. He will forever be a stain on this country. And the world. 25th Amendment. Now.”

Anthony Scaramucci, who briefly served as the White House communications director during Trump’s first term but has since become a vocal critic, posted, “It was at this point that our Founders thought the best thing to do would be to remove a mad man who has the executive office. It became more formalized with the 25th amendment, but more people now should  be calling for this man’s removal.”

Ty Cobb, who served as White House counsel during Trump’s first term and is now a prominent Trump critic, said on The Jim Acosta Show last Wednesday, “Given the fact that the Cabinet will not invoke the 25th Amendment for a man who is clearly insane—this war highlights that and these screeds that come out nightly, you know, at 2 a.m. or 4 a.m., or whatever time Trump decides to vent without oversight—it highlights the level of his insanity and depravity.”

Cobb added that Trump’s post telling U.S. allies to “go get your own oil” from the Strait of Hormuz—a message the President reiterated in his presidential address last week—further proved his point.

In a lengthy post on X, former Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who was once a MAGA standard-bearer but became increasingly disillusioned especially over the Administration’s handling of the Epstein Files, said, “Everyone in his administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshipping the President and intervene in Trump’s madness. I know all of you and him and he has gone insane, and all of you are complicit.”

“I’m not defending Iran but let’s be honest about all of this. The Strait is closed because the US and Israel started the unprovoked war against Iran based on the same nuclear lies they’ve been telling for decades, that any moment Iran would develop a nuclear weapon,” Greene added.

Some, looking back at the past year in which war powers resolutions aimed at limiting Trump’s unilateral decisions to strike alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, take military action against Venezuela, and bomb Iran have largely failed, are skeptical of Congress’s ability to rein in the President.

“All naturally look to the famous constitutional constraints on the presidency,” Simon Jenkins, a British columnist, wrote in the Guardian. “There is increasingly talk of invoking the 25th amendment, allowing the president to be declared unfit for office. The chances of that happening are said to be slim.” A possible Democrat majority emerging from the midterm elections later this year is the best chance at constraining Trump through congressional vetoes on his “emergency powers” or even impeachment, Jenkins wrote.

Still, Trump himself admitted last month that his war strategy might lead some to try to invoke the 25th Amendment.“I can’t say what we’re going to do because if I did, I wouldn’t be sitting here for long,” the President said on March 26, even as he has repeatedly insisted the U.S. and Iran are in diplomatic talks. “They’d probably—what is it called? The 25th Amendment? They’d institute the 25th Amendment.”