Can Donald Trump be removed by the 25th amendment?
Executive summary
Legally, yes: the Constitution’s 25th Amendment contains a process—most notably Section 4—for declaring a president unable to discharge the powers of the office and making the vice‑president acting president or permanently replacing the president [1] [2] [3]. Practically, however, removal under Section 4 has never happened and would face steep institutional and political hurdles: it requires agreement from the vice‑president and a majority of the Cabinet, and if the president contests, a two‑thirds vote in both the House and the Senate to sustain removal [1] [4] [5].
1. What the Constitution actually provides: a stepwise legal mechanism
Section 4 of the 25th Amendment authorizes the vice‑president and a majority of the principal officers of the executive departments to declare the president “unable to discharge the powers and duties” of office, after which the vice‑president immediately assumes the powers as acting president; if the president contests, Congress resolves the dispute and removal requires a two‑thirds vote in both chambers [1] [3] [4].
2. What has and hasn’t happened before: untested territory
Although the 25th Amendment has been used multiple times for voluntary, temporary transfers of power under Section 3, Section 4 has never been invoked to force a president from office—no president has been involuntarily removed under this provision [1] [6].
3. Political reality: the greater obstacle is politics, not law
Scholars and analysts emphasize that the amendment’s legal pathway is clear but the politics make forcible removal extraordinarily difficult; the vice‑president must join the Cabinet majority to act, and opponents of removal would likely marshal the very high congressional thresholds required to restore the president, meaning partisan alignment in the Cabinet and Congress can block the process [7] [4] [8].
4. Current calls and motives: where the push to invoke Section 4 is coming from
Calls to use the 25th Amendment against President Trump have surfaced from Democrats and some Republicans citing rhetoric and fitness concerns—Governor J.B. Pritzker and other officials urged invoking Section 4 after controversial remarks about using U.S. cities for military “training grounds,” and lawmakers and editorial boards have repeatedly urged consideration of removal in moments of crisis [9] [10] [11] [8].
5. Legal debate and alternative routes: scholars and advocates disagree
Legal scholars argue the amendment was designed precisely to address manifest incapacity and that executive and legislative branches should act when the president is “manifestly unsuited” for the office, while other analysts warn the system was deliberately made hard to use to protect democratic stability—impeachment and conviction remain the alternative constitutional route and also present their own high (but different) thresholds [12] [4].
6. Bottom line — can Donald Trump be removed under the 25th Amendment?
In strict legal terms, removal is possible: Section 4 supplies a constitutional mechanism that could be used to make the vice‑president acting president and, if Congress concurs by two‑thirds in both houses after a presidential objection, to remove the president permanently [1] [4] [3]. In practical terms, given that Section 4 has never been used, the necessity of vice‑presidential and Cabinet agreement and the supermajority congressional safeguard, and the partisan realities cited by analysts and news outlets, forcible removal of a sitting president—Donald Trump or any other—remains a remote and politically fraught prospect [1] [7] [8] [6].