President JD Vance? Candace Owens, MTG and CIA Chiefs Demand 25th Amendment to Remove 'Unhinged' Donald Trump

Donald Trump is facing renewed calls for removal under the 25th Amendment after a series of inflammatory threats against Iran and increasingly erratic online posts in recent weeks prompted critics in Washington, the intelligence community and even on the American right to question whether the president is fit to serve.

Talk of using the 25th Amendment against Trump is not new. The constitutional mechanism, which allows a president to be declared 'unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,' was quietly floated by members of his Cabinet after the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol. It never progressed beyond rumour and private conversations. The latest wave of calls has been triggered by the crisis with Iran and by a particularly explicit Truth Social post on 5 April in which Trump threatened Iran's 'civilization' and demanded that Tehran 'Open the F-----' Strait' or 'you'll be living in H---.'

The language shocked even some of Trump's former allies. Conservative commentator Candace Owens, once one of his more loyal defenders, announced on X that 'The 25th amendment needs to be invoked. He is a genocidal lunatic. Our Congress and military need to intervene.' It is rare to see a pro-Trump pundit use that kind of language about him in public, and it underlines how far parts of his own camp have peeled away as the rhetoric has escalated.

Others on the right have edged towards the same conclusion, although often with different motives. Alex Jones, the far‑right broadcaster who once backed Trump fiercely, bluntly asked on his show: 'How do we 25th Amendment his a--?' Former Republican congressman Joe Walsh cited Trump's Easter posts and a religious adviser comparing Trump to Jesus, writing that he would be 'a stain on this country' and demanding: '25th Amendment. Now.'

Even within the Trump orbit, disillusion has hardened into a kind of constitutional panic. Anthony Scaramucci, briefly Trump's White House communications director, argued on X that the American founders intended a remedy for 'a mad man who has the executive office,' and that the 25th Amendment should now be at the centre of debate. Former White House lawyer Ty Cobb went further on CNN, calling Trump 'clearly insane' and accusing his Cabinet of failing in its duty by refusing to act.

Democrats Push 25th Amendment

On the Democratic side, calls to declare Trump unfit have turned into a rolling drumbeat. Senator Ed Markey issued a lengthy statement on X saying it was 'increasingly apparent that Trump is unstable and a clear and present danger, not just to American people but to the world.' He warned that Trump had 'threatened war crimes on an apocalyptic scale,' raised the spectre of nuclear weapons and argued that Congress must either impeach and remove him or see the Cabinet and vice president trigger the 25th Amendment.

Senator Chris Murphy told CNN he understood why some Republicans had begun muttering about the 25th. 'No president in control of his senses would publicly promise to eradicate an entire civilization,' he said, accusing Trump of steering the US towards 'mass war crimes.'

In the House, the language has been starker still. Representative Ilhan Omar called Trump an 'unhinged lunatic' who 'must be removed from office,' posting: 'This is not ok. Invoke the 25th amendment. Impeach. Remove.' Rashida Tlaib accused 'the war criminal in the White House' of threatening genocide and demanded his removal under the amendment. Ro Khanna argued that threatening war crimes 'is a blatant violation of our constitution and the Geneva Conventions' and said the 25th was necessary.

New Mexico congresswoman Melanie Stansbury declared that 'The emperor has no clothes. Time for the #25thAmendment. Congress and the Cabinet must act.' Yassamin Ansari, the only Iranian American Democrat in Congress, called Trump a 'deranged lunatic' and 'national security threat' and said his recent rhetoric 'has crossed every line,' insisting that the 25th Amendment 'exists for a reason; his Cabinet should use it.'

Representative Dan Goldman, who led Trump's first impeachment inquiry, seized on a Wall Street Journal report suggesting the president had limited knowledge of a rescue operation in Iran because of his 'impatience.' In his X post he claimed the 'commander-in-chief was excluded from commanding a military operation because he was acting so crazy,' adding, 'Trump is not well. We need the 25th amendment before something really bad happens on US soil.'

Pressure Mounts on JD Vance

Unusually, some of the pressure is now aimed directly at Vice President JD Vance, whose role is central in any 25th Amendment process. Scott McConnell, co‑founder of The American Conservative, urged Vance on X to 'announce your support of 25th amendment transition' and suggested he name Democrat Chris Murphy as vice president, pledge not to run in 2028 and use his access to explain why Trump must go. It is a wildly improbable blueprint, but it illustrates the degree of desperation in some corners of the conservative establishment.

Former Republican representative Adam Kinzinger, already known as one of Trump's sharpest intra‑party critics, called the president's Iran post 'absolutely insane and 25th amendment grounds in and of itself.' Illinois governor JB Pritzker described Trump's threats as 'a deranged mad man threatening to wipe out an entire country' and said the amendment 'must be invoked.' Another Democrat, Seth Moulton, argued that Trump had 'already committed an impeachable offense' and that Congress had to 'remove him from office before he does more damage.'

The unease has rippled into the intelligence community. John Brennan, who ran the CIA under Barack Obama, argued the involuntary removal clause of the 25th Amendment was 'written with Donald Trump in mind' and told MSNBC that the president was 'clearly unhinged.'

Even daytime television has become a forum for constitutional brinkmanship. After Trump shared an AI‑generated image casting himself in a Christ‑like pose, The View's Sunny Hostin said the 25th Amendment 'is there for a reason' and that 'no one that holds that office' behaves like that, calling the image 'blasphemous.' Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served in Trump's White House, described his self‑depiction as Christ as 'blasphemy' and suggested it showed he did not understand the faith of many of his own supporters. Whoopi Goldberg told viewers that Americans could 'make the changes we need to see' at the ballot box and pushed for Trump's removal.

None of this guarantees any constitutional move. The Cabinet has given no indication it is preparing to declare Trump incapacitated, and there is no public sign that Vance is entertaining such a step. With the stakes so high and so much of the evidence consisting of public statements rather than medical findings, nothing is confirmed yet and everything should be taken with a grain of salt, but the sheer breadth of voices now talking openly about ending a presidency via the 25th Amendment is itself a warning signal for the Trump White House.