House Democrats on Tuesday introduced legislation that would allow Congress to study the president’s fitness for office and move to remove him using the 25th Amendment, amid rising concern from lawmakers over President Donald Trump’s violent rhetoric toward Iran.
The bill, which has 50 Democratic cosponsors, would create a commission to assess whether the emergency amendment should be invoked. The 17-member commission would be comprised of high-ranking former officials appointed by leaders of both parties. The body could pursue steps including a medical examination of the president to determine if he or she is “mentally or physically unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, who introduced the bill, said, “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 online likening himself to Jesus Christ.
“We are at a dangerous precipice, and it is now a matter of national security for Congress to fulfill its responsibilities under the 25th Amendment to protect the American people from an increasingly volatile and unstable situation.”
The legislation has little chance of making an impact on the Trump administration. The commission, as outlined in the 25th Amendment, would need the vice president’s approval to remove the president, a highly unlikely prospect given Vice President JD Vance’s close alliance with President Trump.
There’s also a more basic hurdle: the GOP-controlled Congress is unlikely to advance the Democratic bill in the first place.
The White House has criticized the proposal.
“Lightweight Jamie Raskin is a stupid person’s idea of a smart person,” spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement to The Independent.
“President Trump’s sharpness, unmatched energy, and historic accessibility stand in stark contrast to what we saw during the last administration when Democrats like Raskin intentionally covered up Joe Biden’s serious mental and physical decline from the American people,” Ingle said.
The proposed law follows days of alarm from Democrats, who argue the president is increasingly unfit for office and unmoored from normal checks and balances.
Nearly 100 Democrats last week called for Trump to be removed using the 25th Amendment, after the president made a series of seemingly genocidal threats to destroy Iranian civilization.
Raskin also urged the White House physician to perform a comprehensive cognitive assessment of Trump, alleging that he “has been exhibiting signs consistent with dementia and cognitive decline.”
Several right-wing commentators joined in the criticism, including Alex Jones, Candace Owens, and former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, all of whom called for Trump to be removed.
Democrats also filed articles of impeachment against Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, slamming the administration’s military-style deportation campaign and “serial usurpation of the congressional war power” throughout the Iran conflict.
Outside critics have similarly expressed doubts over the president’s mental fitness.
“One of the things that we need to consider is that he is drifting more into a natural state, being fed by the sycophants that are around him, and developing almost like this delusional level of narcissism,” Dr. Geoff Grammer, a Maryland-based psychiatrist and retired Army colonel, recently told The Independent.
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