Democrats have developed a peculiar habit over the past few years. When the ballot box doesn’t deliver, when their policy arguments fall flat, and when the president they loathe keeps racking up results—these lawmakers skip soul-searching and grab the nearest constitutional crowbar. Forget persuasion. Forget winning hearts and minds. Just declare the other guy unfit and hope nobody asks follow-up questions.
The 25th Amendment, ratified in 1967 for genuinely dire circumstances such as presidential incapacity after an assassination attempt or a catastrophic medical event, was never intended as an escape hatch for sore losers. Yet here we are, watching Democratic leaders treat it like a fire alarm they pull every time a Trump rally clip makes them uncomfortable.
California Governor Gavin Newsom called for invoking the 25th Amendment against President Donald Trump, labeling him “mentally ill” following Trump’s controversial remarks involving Los Angeles and San Diego.
“Donald Trump is mentally ill. TIME FOR THE 25TH!” Newsom declared in statements provided to multiple media outlets.
All caps. Exclamation point. The social media meltdown, courtesy of the governor of a state where people are stepping over needles on the sidewalk just to get to work. Gavin Newsom wasn’t offering measured constitutional analysis; he was performing outrage for the cameras while the state he actually governs crumbles behind him.
He also called Trump “deranged and dangerous” on X, because apparently one unhinged statement per news cycle isn’t enough. This is Newsom’s second swing at the 25th Amendment in roughly three months. Back in July, he declared a Trump speech on election integrity to be “the rambling of a mad king.” Now it’s “mentally ill.” The diagnoses keep changing, but the prescription stays the same—remove the president Newsom personally despises.
At a campaign rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, Trump argued about Iran’s nuclear ambitions: “They can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego,” he said. “This is a very small price to pay.”
Ripped from context, that sounds alarming—precisely why Newsom ripped it from context. But White House communications director Steven Cheung had receipts. He called the media hysteria “not rooted in reality,” clarifying that Trump “was clearly stating U.S. cities would have been threatened if a nuclear Iran hadn’t been stopped.”
Then came the line Newsom will never quote: “America is safer because of the President. Iran has no nuclear, no navy, no air force, and no money.”
That’s not a man who needs removing from office—that’s a track record. Newsom just doesn’t like whose name is on it.
The sheer audacity of this gambit becomes clear when you remember recent history. These are the same Democrats who built a human shield around Joe Biden for years. Every stumble, every lost thought mid-sentence—was dismissed as “cheap fakes” or a childhood stutter.
Biden is now conspicuously absent from the midterm campaign trail. Obama and Harris carry the water. Yet not a single Democrat who wrings their hands over Trump’s mental fitness ever breathed the words “25th Amendment” when their own president was visibly struggling. Newsom was part of that protective operation.
Newsom isn’t freelancing here. Sunny Hostin floated the 25th Amendment on “The View” the same week. House Democrats introduced a bill to formally examine removing Trump through the same mechanism. This is choreographed—a midterm-season messaging push wrapped in constitutional clothing.
And Newsom’s starring role reveals his true priorities: A governor with transparent national ambitions finds it far more convenient to lob grenades at the White House than to explain why residents keep heading for the exits.
The 25th Amendment exists for real emergencies—not for governors nursing a grudge and chasing a headline.
