Democrats Push to Invoke the 25th Amendment After Trump’s Greenland Letter Sparks Alarm

Donald Trump’s message to Norway’s prime minister earlier this week became a breaking point for many Democrats, prompting renewed calls to invoke the 25th Amendment. Here is how that constitutional process could, in theory, be used to remove Donald Trump from office.

Trump’s increasingly aggressive rhetoric about Greenland has sparked unease internationally, including tension among NATO allies. While the president argues the United States needs Greenland for national security, he has not ruled out the possibility of taking it by military force.

In recent months, some doctors and commentators have raised concerns about Trump’s health, including claims that he may be developing dementia. Those allegations gained fresh attention after a letter Trump sent last weekend to Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, which alarmed several Democrats in the Senate and Congress.

In the message, Trump suggested that Norway’s refusal to award him the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize would free him to focus more narrowly on U.S. interests, even though Norway is not responsible for selecting the Nobel Peace Prize recipient.

The letter read: “Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway?”

Trump continued: “There are no written documents; it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT”

How the 25th Amendment could remove Donald Trump from office

Jonas Gahr Støre later told Norwegian outlet VG that he had received a message from Trump on Sunday. After the president’s unusual claims, Democrats renewed calls to invoke the 25th Amendment as a legal mechanism to remove him from office.

The 25th Amendment was proposed after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 and was ratified in 1967. It was designed to address presidential incapacity and medical emergencies that could prevent a president from performing the duties of the office. The amendment has four sections.

Section 1 states that if a president dies, resigns, or is removed, the vice president becomes president. Section 2 states that if the vice presidency becomes vacant, the president nominates a replacement who takes office after confirmation by a majority vote in both chambers of Congress.

Section 3 allows a president to temporarily transfer power by sending the Speaker of the House and the Senate president pro tempore a written declaration stating that he or she is unable to discharge the powers and duties of the presidency. The vice president then becomes acting president until the president sends another written declaration saying he is able to resume the job. This provision has been used when presidents undergo medical procedures.

Democrat says Trump is “extremely mentally ill”

Section 4 is the most serious and most contested pathway. It allows the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to submit a written declaration that the president is unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office. If that happens, the vice president immediately becomes acting president.

If the president challenges the declaration, Congress must decide the issue. The president can remain sidelined only if two-thirds of both the House and Senate vote that he is unable to serve. Once the matter is formally before Congress, lawmakers have 21 days to reach a decision.

Following the latest controversial claims, public statements, and the letter to Norway, some Democrats have called for using the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.

Among those urging action are Representatives Yassamin Ansari and Sydney Kamlager-Dove, along with Senator Ed Markey. Trump has also faced criticism from some Republicans, including Representative Don Bacon and Senator Mitch McConnell.

“The president of the United States is extremely mentally ill, and it’s putting all of our lives at risk. The 25th Amendment exists for a reason—we need to invoke it immediately,” Yassamin Ansari, an Arizona Democrat, wrote in a post on X.

Expert explains the obstacles to invoking the 25th Amendment

So what would it actually take to invoke the 25th Amendment in practice? According to Mark Graber, a law professor at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, there are “both political and legal problems with efforts to invoke” it.

“The legal problem is that the 25th Amendment was designed to deal with a medically incapacitated president—for example, a president who is unconscious or physically unable to perform the duties of the office,” Graber told Newsweek. “We might imagine a mentally ill president whose beliefs are so fantastic that he or she can no longer perform the job, but President Trump is not suffering from that form of psychosis.”

Graber added that Trump’s platform and personal characteristics may be viewed by critics as “political disqualifications” for the presidency, but noted that “the American people disagreed in 2024.”

He also said a case could be made that Trump’s actions are impeachable, but emphasized that impeachment is a separate constitutional process and often faces the same political barriers.

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