Which cabinet members or officials were reported to have discussed invoking the 25th Amendment, and what did they say on the record?
Executive summary
Multiple news outlets reported that “some” members of President Trump’s Cabinet discussed invoking Section 4 of the 25th Amendment in the wake of the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack, but few individual Cabinet secretaries were publicly named and there are no records of Cabinet members formally transmitting any declaration; legal scholars and reporting later identified Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin as having at least raised and then tabled such conversations amid legal and practical uncertainties [1] [2] [3]. Major outlets characterized the discussions as preliminary, informal and largely off the record, while public calls for invocation came instead from members of Congress and commentators rather than Cabinet officials themselves [1] [4].
1. Who was reported to be involved — names in reporting and how they were described
Initial media reports described “some members” of the Cabinet engaging in conversations about invoking Section 4 rather than identifying a roster of participants; ABC News, Forbes and People summarized multiple unnamed sources saying Cabinet-level discussions occurred but did not publish on-the-record statements from specific secretaries confirming any plan [1] [2] [4]. Subsequent legal commentary and scholarship, citing news reporting, singled out Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin as names associated with those discussions but emphasized that both reportedly moved to table or shelve the idea because of uncertainties about how to operationalize the amendment [3].
2. What was actually said on the record by Cabinet members or other officials
There is no sourced record in the provided reporting of a Cabinet secretary publicly saying “we will invoke the 25th Amendment” or transmitting any written declaration; the coverage instead documents private conversations and unnamed sources describing alarm and consideration of the mechanism [1] [4]. Reporting noted that a plan had not been presented to Vice President Mike Pence, and CBS and CNN accounts emphasized the preliminary nature of discussions rather than any formal or on-the-record commitment by Cabinet members [4]. The clearest on-the-record public statements came from members of Congress and commentators: for example, Rep. Adam Kinzinger publicly called for invocation, urging the Vice President and Cabinet to act [1], while think tanks and columnists argued publicly that Section 4 should be used [5].
3. Legal and logistical caveats that shaped the conversations
News and legal analysis stressed that Section 4 has never been used and that operational questions — including whether acting (unconfirmed) Cabinet officers count toward the majority needed — complicated any attempt to act, a concern explicitly linked in reporting to why some named secretaries moved to table discussions [3] [6]. The Constitution and congressional annotations make clear that invocation requires the vice president and a majority of principal officers to transmit a written declaration to Congress and that if the president contests it, Congress must act within 21 days — procedural hurdles that outlets and scholars said likely restrained swift Cabinet action [7] [8].
4. Alternative viewpoints, motives, and limits of the record
Reporting contains alternative frames: some commentators and legal experts urged immediate use of Section 4 as the fastest constitutional safeguard (Brookings and others argued publicly), while others warned of constitutional crisis, partisan blowback and legal uncertainty that would follow a disputed invocation [5] [3]. The sources provided rely heavily on anonymous accounts and secondary analysis; where reporting names Pompeo and Mnuchin it is through later academic citation of contemporary news accounts, not through direct, on-the-record Cabinet statements in the cited journalism, so the public record on exactly who said what inside the administration remains thin [3] [1].
5. Bottom line
The contemporaneous public record shows widespread, often anonymous reporting that some Cabinet members discussed invoking the 25th Amendment after January 6, 2021, with later analyses identifying Mike Pompeo and Steve Mnuchin as participants who ultimately raised legal concerns and stepped back; no Cabinet secretary issued an on-the-record declaration to invoke Section 4, and public calls for action largely came from lawmakers and commentators rather than named Cabinet officials [1] [2] [3] [4].