Did the US activate article 25

1. What the question actually asks: invoking the 25th vs. other ways to remove a president

The popular shorthand “activate Article 25” means using the 25th Amendment’s Section 4 to declare a president unable to discharge the duties of the office and transfer power to the vice president with Cabinet concurrence — a procedure that is distinct from impeachment and criminal processes and that, by design, is confined to questions of incapacity or disability rather than political wrongdoing ^{[4] [5]}.

2. The constitutional record: precedents and limits

Since ratification in 1967, Section 4—the provision that would allow the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare the president incapacitated—has never been successfully invoked to remove a president; only Section 3, the voluntary, temporary transfer of power by a president, has been used three times for medical procedures (Reagan and George W. Bush examples), demonstrating the amendment’s limited historical use and political difficulty ^{[1] [2] [3]}.

3. The episodes that generated calls but not action

High-profile crises have generated public and political calls to use Section 4 — most notably in the wake of the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack, when lawmakers, commentators and even some Cabinet members reportedly urged Vice President Mike Pence to consider invocation; none of those efforts culminated in an invocation, and other paths such as impeachment were pursued instead by the House ^{[3] [6] [7]}. Later partisan calls — including Representative Derrick Van Orden’s request in July 2024 that Vice President Harris invoke Section 4 regarding President Biden — are further examples of public appeals but not of actual constitutional activation ^[8].

4. Why Section 4 is politically and legally fraught

Legal scholars and institutional analysts emphasize that Section 4 was never intended as a routine removal tool and is harder to use than impeachment: it requires a majority of principal executive officers to agree, creates an immediate inter-branch contest if the president objects, and relies on a politically fragile Cabinet coalition — complications made worse when Cabinet turnover or resignations reduce available votes ^{[5] [9] [1]}. The consequence: calls to “activate” the amendment often become political signaling rather than practicable remedies.

5. The bottom line and limits of available reporting

Based on the legal history and contemporary reporting, the United States has not activated the 25th Amendment’s Section 4 to remove any president; brief, voluntary uses of Section 3 occurred for medical reasons, and repeated post-crisis demands to invoke Section 4 have remained rhetorical or procedural proposals rather than executed constitutional transfers of power ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Reporting and expert commentary make clear the amendment’s constraints and the political obstacles to its use, but available sources do not suggest any successful Section 4 invocation in U.S. history ^{[1] [5]}.