Democrats Revive 25th Amendment Debate as Trump Faces New Scrutiny
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker compares Trump to Putin, fueling Democratic calls for the 25th Amendment but history suggests removal is unlikely.
Trenton, October 3 EST: Every few years, the 25th Amendment makes a cameo in American politics. It showed up in whispers during Reagan’s second term, when aides fretted over his memory lapses. It roared back after January 6, 2021, when even Trump’s Cabinet batted the idea around before losing their nerve. And now, less than a year into Trump’s second presidency, it’s here again summoned not by insiders but by critics who see a leader unbound.
Pritzker Throws a Punch
The spark this time was Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, who went well beyond the usual Democratic talking points. He seized on Trump’s suggestion that U.S. cities might serve as military “training grounds” and compared it outright to Putin’s playbook. That’s more than rhetoric it’s an attempt to cast Trump not just as controversial, but fundamentally alien to American democracy. Pritzker didn’t hedge, didn’t soften. He said the Cabinet should act.
Old Ghosts, New Stage
Here’s the reality: no Cabinet is moving against Trump. Vice President J.D. Vance is loyal to the core, and Trump’s inner circle was built for obedience, not defiance. That’s why talk of the 25th Amendment is always louder on television than inside government offices. But its reappearance matters because it signals something deeper: a fear that Trump’s words aren’t just bombast, they’re a warning of action to come.
This isn’t new. The amendment has always functioned more as a pressure valve than a plan. In 1974, even as Nixon unraveled, it wasn’t seriously considered. During Reagan’s lapses, staff quietly managed around him. After January 6, a moment that seemed tailor-made for Section 4, the courage evaporated before signatures hit paper. The bar is sky-high, and history shows it’s rarely even approached.
The Law Versus the Politics
Technically, it’s simple: Vance and a Cabinet majority declare Trump unfit, Congress confirms with two-thirds if he resists. Politically, it’s science fiction. Republicans have no appetite to fracture their own ranks, and Democrats know it. Which is why these calls are more performance than procedure. They say less about law than about mood about a party that feels cornered and wants the country to share its alarm.
When Pop Culture Joins In
The conversation isn’t confined to Capitol Hill. Whoopi Goldberg after Trump’s scorched-earth speech at the United Nations told her daytime audience the 25th should be invoked. That moment is telling: when a constitutional instrument drafted in the Cold War ends up as fodder for The View, it shows just how much Trump has turned dry legal code into cultural shorthand for crisis.
The Real Stakes
So what does all this hand-wringing achieve? For Democrats, it keeps alive the frame of Trump as unstable, not merely wrongheaded. For Trump’s base, it confirms the narrative he thrives on: that elites will never stop trying to sideline him. Both sides get what they need, while the amendment itself sits untouched the glass box on the wall marked “break only in case of national emergency.”
The truth is, that glass has never been broken. Not for Nixon, not for Reagan, not for Trump the first time. It won’t be broken now. But the fact that politicians and pundits keep pointing to it tells us something important: they feel the system’s ordinary levers elections, oversight, checks and balances aren’t enough.
And that may be the most sobering part. The 25th Amendment isn’t going to remove Trump. But the longing for it, the constant drumbeat of “he’s unfit,” reveals how fragile trust in American institutions has become.
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A political science PhD who jumped the academic ship to cover real-time governance, Olivia is the East Coast's sharpest watchdog. She dissects power plays in Trenton and D.C. without bias or apology.
