Trump’s gone too far: Invoke the 25th Amendment before it’s too late

On Easter morning, President Trump took to Truth Social and issued a statement that would have been unthinkable from any other modern American president. Just reading it was visceral:  “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran,” he wrote a little after 8 a.m. “Open the F–kin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH. Praise be to Allah.”

Strip away the shock value for a moment and consider what this represents in practical terms. This is not a stray remark at a rally. Nor was it a misstatement quickly corrected by staff. This is a public declaration, directed at a geopolitical adversary, during an active and escalating international crisis. 

And it also raises a question that Washington has spent years trying to avoid: What happens when the risk is not external, but presidential? 

The 25th Amendment to the Constitution was not written for partisan convenience. It was designed for moments when the continuity and stability of executive decision-making come into question. Its purpose is not to punish a president but to protect the country. 

For decades, the 25th Amendment has been treated as politically radioactive. That made sense when the threshold was hypothetical or remote. But it makes far less sense when real concerns are playing out in real time, in full public view, during a potential military escalation in one of the most volatile regions in the........

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