INVOKE THE 25TH AMENDMENT! – WHY?

In the history of the United States, and possibly in the history of the entire world, the radical Left has never hated anyone as intensely as they hate Donald Trump. The reason is obvious: he has stood as a colossus, almost singlehandedly thwarting their plans to convert our constitutional republic into a secular socialist society.

Having lost at the polls and having lost in the courts, the Left now cries in desperation, “Invoke the 25th Amendment!”

How would you respond? That’s pretty hard unless we know what the 25th Amendment says, why it was adopted, and what it means.

After clarifying that the Vice President becomes President if the President is removed from office or resigns and becomes Acting President if the President temporarily vacates the office because of nonpermanent disability, the Amendment provides:

Section 3

Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

Section 4

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

After the Kennedy assassination of 1963 and Eisenhower’s heart attacks in the 1950s, many felt the need to clarify that the Vice President becomes President, not Acting President, when the President dies or is removed (an issue that had persisted ever since John Tyler succeeded William Henry Harrison in 1841), but he becomes only Acting President when the President is only temporarily unable to serve.

But Congress also addressed what would happen if the President was unable to serve but refused to admit it or leave office voluntarily. In that event the Vice President and a majority of the cabinet (“or of such other body as Congress may by law provide”) may declare the President unfit and make the Vice President acting president. And when the President declares that he is ready to return, the Vice President (Acting President) (“or such other body” again) may block him from returning, and the question of his fitness will then be decided by Congress.

The Amendment, then, gives Congress the power to supplant the President and his cabinet. The Framers never intended an absolute separation of powers; they instituted checks and balances by which each branch could limit the others. But this phrase in the Amendment makes the President helpless before an angry Congress.

Can the Vice President stand against Congress? Possibly. It’s not clear whether this other body created by Congress would act with the Vice President or independently of him. But either way, if the President were removed, the Vice President would become Acting President and there would be no immediate Vice-President. A manipulative Speaker of the House like Nancy Pelosi could use the 25th Amendment to remove the President, then use it immediately to remove the Acting President, and with no Vice President to stand in her way, the Speaker could become President Pelosi.

Sections 3 and 4 of the 25th Amendment were poorly-drafted attempts to solve a nonexistent problem. But at least one part of the Amendment is clear: it applies only when the President is “unable to discharge the duties of his office:”

Not when he discharges them contrary to the way some of us want him to.

Not when he has a personality or style that some of us don’t like.

Not when he stands in the way of our attempts to remake America in our own image.

No, only when he is “unable to discharge the duties of his office.”

Using the 25th Amendment the way the Left would like to do, violates both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution, invites reprisals next time Republicans are in the majority, and signals an end to legitimate constitutional process.

Let’s put this brazen attempt to subvert constitutional process to an end once and for all.

I dedicate this column to the memory of my beloved wife Sophie Marleen Eidsmoe, who entered into the joy of her Savior Jesus Christ on April 24, 2026. “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.” Revelation 14:13.

Colonel Eidsmoe serves as Professor of Constitutional Law for the Oak Brook College of Law & Government Policy (obcl.edu), as Senior Counsel for the Foundation for Moral Law (morallaw.org), and as Chairman of the Board of the Plymouth Rock Foundation (plymrock.org). He lives in rural Pike Road, Alabama, and may be contacted for speaking engagements at eidsmoeja@morallaw.org.

THE VIEWS OF SUBMITTED EDITORIALS MAY NOT BE THE EXPRESS VIEWS OF THE ALABAMA GAZETTE.