Trump Calls for 25th Amendment to Be Modified — Should Vance Be Worried?

Former President Donald Trump is calling for the 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to be amended so that it also applies to vice presidents — a demand that he intended as an attack on Vice President Kamala Harris, but which could also have repercussions for his GOP running mate.

Trump, who is running as the Republican presidential nominee against Harris, the Democratic candidate, made the comments during a rally in Wisconsin on Saturday.

The 25th Amendment outlines a process to remove a sitting president from power if they’re deemed “unable to discharge the powers and duties” of the office. The vice president takes their place under that scenario, which has never happened in U.S. history but was discussed at several junctures during Trump’s tenure as president from 2017 to 2021.

Under the terms of the amendment, a vice president, along with a majority of the presidential cabinet, must alert Congress that the president is no longer fit to serve. When that happens, the vice president takes control of the presidency — however, if the current president disagrees, they can tell Congress that they believe they are fit to serve and remain in power. If the dispute continues after that, two-thirds of Congress must vote in agreement with the vice president’s position in order for the president to be removed.

Trump called for “modifying” the amendment to allow for the removal of a vice president who “lies or engages in a conspiracy to cover up the incapacity of the president” — baselessly implying that Harris did as much in the weeks leading up to President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the presidential race.

“If you do that with a cover-up of the president of the United States, it’s grounds for impeachment immediately and removal from office, because that’s what they did,” Trump added.

Trump has attacked Harris many times in the past several weeks on the basis of that argument, errantly claiming that Harris replacing Biden was a “coup” against Biden, and falsely implying that Harris betrayed the current president. These claims are patently untrue — while Biden faced pressure from the media and from within his own party (as well as from voters) to drop out, there is no indication that Harris was part of that pressure campaign, and she publicly stood by him while it was unfolding.

Given Trump’s past attacks against Mike Pence, who served as vice president during his time in the White House, his recent comments are perhaps more worrisome for his current vice presidential running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio). After his loss to Biden in the 2020 election, Trump publicly blasted Pence for refusing to help him overturn the results of that race during the counting of the Electoral College on January 6, 2021.

That morning, Trump encouraged a mob of his loyalists to descend on the Capitol to protest the certification of his loss. Within his speech, he also made one last plea for Pence “to do the right thing” and overturn the outcome.

When Pence refused, the mob turned violent at the Capitol, forcing lawmakers to evacuate. Dozens of Trump loyalists chanted “Hang Mike Pence” during the melee; Pence later acknowledged that the mob had threatened the lives of him and his family.

As the violence was unfolding, Trump published a post on Twitter that he later deleted, blaming his vice president for refusing to acquiesce to his demands. Former Trump White House aides later recalled that Trump was gleeful as he watched the attack live on television, and that he believed Pence “deserve[d] it” when the crowd called for him to be hanged.

Trump’s recent call to “modify” the 25th amendment could pose a predicament for Vance should he and Trump win the presidential election in November. It’s also possible that the question of Trump’s loyalty to his running mate could come up during the debate between Vance and the Democratic nominee for vice president, Gov. Tim Walz, on October 1.