Raskin offers bill setting up 25th Amendment process to remove Trump from office

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Source: MS NOW

Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, introduced a bill on Tuesday that seeks to kickstart the removal of President Donald Trump through the 25th Amendment — a longshot effort that, while unlikely to succeed, aims to put renewed focus on the president’s mental fitness and recent rhetoric.

The legislation, which was offered with 50 Democratic co-sponsors, would establish a “Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of Office.” That Commission would be composed of 17 members tasked with determining whether the president is incapacitated — “either mentally or physically” — and able to discharge the powers and duties of office, as called for in Section 4 of the 25th Amendment.

In introducing the bill, Raskin pointed to Trump’s recent rhetoric on the war in Iran, his actions in the Middle East and the photo he posted on social media depicting himself as Jesus. (Trump later claimed he was portraying himself as a doctor.)

“Public trust in Donald Trump’s ability to meet the duties of his office has dropped to unprecedented lows as he threatens to destroy entire civilizations, unleashes chaos in the Middle East while violating Congressional war powers, aggressively insults the Pope of the Catholic Church and sends out artistic renderings on-line likening himself to Jesus Christ,” Raskin said in a statement.

Read more: https://www.ms.now/news/raskin-bill-25th-amendment-remove-trump

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Raskin offers bill setting up 25th Amendment process to remove Trump from office
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., wants to set up a new commission to determine whether Trump is mentally fit for office.

www.ms.now/news/raskin-...

— Rude 8647 Fulk (@rudefulk.bsky.social) 2026-04-14T16:51:42.272Z

[hlthe2b]

1. Ignoring the uphill battle with passage & noting my intense respect for Raskin's constitutional

knowledge, I still don't know how this would be constitutional if it bypasses the cabinet.

I haven't researched it specifically, so I guess I will watch and observe.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. The 25th Amendment allows for Congress to establish another body to evaluate POTUS fitness

Raskin knows his constitutional law
https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-25/

Section 4
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

Congress has the ultimate say. It does not hurt to set up this process

[Bluetus]

12. Thank you. I overlooked that clause and I think others did too.

What Raskin is doing is absolutely constitutional. We know the cabinet will not act. And it is highly likely the Congress will block Raskin's effort, but it is entirely proper to establish the commission he is proposing. That will give us a framework for exerting public pressure on Trump and the Republicans to fix this problem.

Moreover, this should be THE campaign issue of 2026. And if it does not get through Congress before the election, we should all be campaigning heavily on making this Commission do its job once we take over the house and the senate.

This can be a strong unifying theme for the fall election. I would like to see it broadened to include the question of whether Trump has already been compromised because of relationships that are treasonous.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

13. Congressman Raskin is a great constitutional law scholar

I have seen discussions of the 25th Amendment including the need for an independent body to determine competency. Such a body is clearly needed now given the cowardness of Vance and trump's cabinet.

[BadgerKid]

5. It looks like it's following the Constitution.

"...unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide..."

Welp, here's the start of a bill to create this "other body". Congress might "allow" it and even vote for it, but seeing as how a 2/3rds majority is then needed of both houses to discharge a president, that is the part that's still hard to see, IMO.

[BadgerKid]

2. Would love to impeach cabinet members who aren't applying the 25thA. n/t

[rsdsharp]

4. This is a waste of time. He's trying to shame Vance and the cabinet into invoking the 25th Amendment.

It won’t work — none of them have any shame; witness the groveling at every “Cabinet” meeting.

Even if it works he’d still need 2/3rds of both houses of Congress. Just go to Impeachment. For that to succeed, he only needs a simple majority in the House and 2/3rds of the Senate, and no role for Just Dance Vance and the Cabinet.

The fact is Congress has no appetite for removing Trump. At least not yet.

[Bayard]

6. There's 51 Dems that trump will now direct the DOJ to investigate/prosecute

But I would sure love for them to suceed.

[Icanthinkformyself]

7. IDK if it's worth the effort.

We are beyond any hope that the Republicans will touch their Orange Jesus. Just keep referring to the Epstein Files and gas/grocery prices. Most people, especially conservatives, respond only to that which kicks them in the side of the head. Remind them every day that they are paying exorbitant prices for what they need to survive because the morbidly wealthy have unbounded greed. Logic and reason, voting for their own self-interest and not the interests of the oligarchs, do not impact the interior of the skulls of the average conservative. They have herd immunity against reasonableness and logical thoughts.

[progressoid]

9. Yep. Epstein, prices, and now war in the middle east.

All promises broken by the Orange Anus.

And around here the farmers are getting screwed by Trump and the GOP with little help in sight. International sales are disappearing. Meanwhile, anhydrous, nitrogen, and fuel are expensive. All because of MAGA.

[Ray Bruns]

11. Agreed. Waste of time. Concentrate on the midterms.

We have to win.

[Vinca]

8. If Republicans were smart, they'd see it as a lifeline and grab it. So of course, they won't.

[CTyankee]

10. I say "Keep it up." Keep the public aware of Trump's shittiness every day!

Eventually, we're gonna win.

[QueerDuck]

14. I do not believe he would be "removed"... he'd still be the President (and could continually appeal)

... he'd simply have the levers of power removed from his control and Vance would become "acting President".

This would be a great thing if it happened, but it's not the be-all, end-all, cure-all that many hope it will be. It's just a small step (and a giant leap for mankind?)

[LetMyPeopleVote]

15. MaddowBlog-Trump confronts a public conversation he hoped to avoid over his mental stability

One observer argued, “The American people must not look away … They must pay attention to the president’s deterioration.”

Is Trump’s mental stability getting worse or has he always been this way? It’s tough to say with confidence.

What’s easier to say is that the intensifying public conversation about his mental fitness is getting louder, which is a disaster for the White House.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-04-14T20:56:03.629Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-confronts-a-public-conversation-he-hoped-to-avoid-over-his-mental-stability

Last week, after Donald Trump issued genocidal threats toward Iran and made strange comments at the White House Easter Egg Roll, Rep. Jamie Raskin decided to contact the president’s physician, seeking a “comprehensive cognitive and neurological evaluation.”

This week, the Maryland Democrat, who serves as the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, took another step down the same path, unveiling a proposal to establish a Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of Office. The measure, which was unveiled with 50 Democratic co-sponsors, would be responsible for determining whether the president is incapacitated “either mentally or physically” and unable to discharge the powers and duties of office, as called for in the 25th Amendment.....

Indeed, the day before Raskin unveiled his proposal, The New York Times published a striking report with an unsubtle headline: “Trump’s Erratic Behavior and Extreme Comments Revive Mental Health Debate.” From the article:

President Trump’s erratic behavior and extreme comments in recent days and weeks have turbocharged the crazy-like-a-fox-or-just-plain-crazy debate that has followed him on the national political stage for a decade.

A series of disjointed, hard-to-follow and sometimes-profane statements capped by his ‘a whole civilization will die tonight’ threat to wipe Iran off the map last week and his head-spinning attack on the ‘WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy’ pope on Sunday night have left many with the impression of a deranged autocrat mad with power.

The Times highlighted a lawyer who used to work with Trump, who described the president as “a man who is clearly insane.” It also noted a recent comment from Stephanie Grisham, a former White House press secretary who worked for Trump in his first term, who wrote online last week that her former boss is “clearly not well.”.....

Indeed, I remember the Times publishing a front-page report in October 2024, about a month before Election Day, that highlighted a variety of situations in which the Republican “seemed confused, forgetful, incoherent or disconnected from reality.” The same article added, “He rambles, he repeats himself, he roams from thought to thought — some of them hard to understand, some of them unfinished, some of them factually fantastical. He voices outlandish claims that seem to be made up out of whole cloth. He digresses into bizarre tangents about golf, about sharks, about his own ‘beautiful’ body.”

A year and a half later, is Trump worse? It’s hard to say with confidence.

What’s easier to say with certainty, however, is that this entire line of inquiry is a disaster for the White House. Trump is woefully unpopular; he has no idea what to do with a struggling economy; and the destabilizing war he started in Iran for reasons he’s unable to explain clearly isn’t going according to plan — to the extent that the president even had a rudimentary plan at all.

It’s against this backdrop that the conversation about his mental fitness is getting louder.

[onenote]

16. It won't result in his being forced from office, but it will shine a light on his craziness.

First, the bill almost certainly will immediately be referred to the Judiciary Committee where it will die. Second, even if it got out of Committee and was voted on by the House and even if it passed the House, it won't get voted on or make it through the Senate. And if it somehow made it through the House and Senate, Trump would veto it.

Leaving all that aside, the bigger problem is that in the end, it doesn't resolve the principal weakness in the 25th amendment -- one that could only be cured by a Constitutional amendment. And that is the fact that even if this Commission was created and it concluded Trump was incapacitated to the point that they could not discharge the powers and duties of the presidency, under the language of the 25th amendment, Trump could dispute that finding and it then would require a 2/3 vote of both the House and the Senate to remove Trump. And that isn't happening.

Nevertheless, Raskin's bill is worthwhile insofar as it highlights Trump's nuttiness. But the reality is, notwithstanding what some pundits claim, the 25th amendment was not designed for the situation presented by Trump's behavior. It was principally designed to deal with the circumstance where the president is unable to act, not when the president acts stupidly. It was intended to deal with the situation where a president is unconscious, either for surgery or due to illness, or is otherwise unable to make decisions. Trump can and does discharge the duties and powers of the office -- he can and does sign legislation, make nominations and appointments, dictate foreign policy, etc etc. The solution under the Constitution when a president exercises those powers badly or even irrationally, is through elections, unless the actions not only are irrational but constitute the type of action that should be addressed by impeachment, such as committing or threatening to commit war crimes -- and impeachment is a lower bar than the 25th amendment.

But, as noted, I have no objection to Raskin and other putting forward the bill as a way to highlight Trump's craziness. But it isn't going to change anything directly.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

17. Shining a light on trump's mental issues will be valuable