Did trumps cabinet invoke the 25th amendment
Executive summary
No—Trump’s Cabinet has not formally invoked Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to remove or temporarily displace President Trump; what exists in the record is discussion, calls from lawmakers and commentators, and—at specific moments—reported private consideration by some Cabinet members, but no transmission to Congress that would trigger the Amendment’s formal process [1] [2] [3].
1. What actually happened: talk, reports and public demands, not invocation
In the wake of high-profile incidents—most notably the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack—multiple outlets reported that some Cabinet members discussed asking Vice President Mike Pence to invoke Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, but those reports describe deliberation rather than a completed constitutional action; Section 4 was never formally invoked and no letter was transmitted to Congress removing presidential powers [2] [4] [5]. More recently, renewed social-media behavior and a reported text to Norway’s prime minister prompted Democratic lawmakers and commentators to call for invocation again, but those calls remain political appeals, not official Cabinet action [6] [7] [8].
2. Legal mechanics make invocation difficult; history shows it’s never been used
Section 4 requires the vice president and a majority of the 15 Cabinet members to declare a president unable to discharge duties, then transmit that declaration to Congress—after which the president can contest and Congress has up to 21 days to decide [1] [3] [5]. Constitutional scholars and analysts stress this is a high bar: the involuntary-removal provision has never been used in American history, and past episodes show the clause is tightly constrained by both legal and political checks [1] [9] [3].
3. Political realities undercut the prospect of a Cabinet-led removal
Observers and institutional analyses note the political loyalty within a president’s Cabinet and the need for the vice president’s concurrence make a Section 4 move unlikely unless the president is plainly incapacitated or politically abandoned by his own party; commentators in multiple outlets emphasize that Cabinet loyalty and partisan control of Congress reduce the chances that talks ever move to formal invocation [9] [8] [6]. Resignations and vacancies among Cabinet posts in past crises also complicate achieving a majority, another real-world impediment noted by reporting and explainers [10].
4. What advocates and critics argued—and why both matter
Legal and civic voices urged use of the Amendment as an extraordinary safeguard after January 6, arguing it was the fastest constitutional device to strip a dangerous commander-in-chief of power [11] [12]. Critics of those calls warned that invoking Section 4 is constitutionally untested in that context, politically fraught, and could itself precipitate institutional crisis unless executed with clear supporting evidence and broad agreement [3] [9]. The record supplied here shows both the normative pressure to act and the practical reservations that prevented formal invocation [11] [3].
5. Bottom line and limits of the reporting
Based on contemporary reporting and legal summaries, there is no documented instance in which Trump’s Cabinet actually invoked the 25th Amendment to remove or suspend him; what is documented is discussion among some officials in January 2021 and renewed public calls at later moments, including January 2026, but not the formal constitutional step of the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet transmitting a declaration to Congress [2] [4] [6] [1]. The sources used do not provide evidence of any completed Section 4 invocation; if additional classified or unpublished action occurred, those sources do not report it and this analysis cannot adjudicate such claims [1] [2].