As President Donald Trump was preparing to declare a national emergency to build his fake-crisis border wall — testing the limits of the power of a commander-in-chief — there have apparently been rumblings about law enforcement officials invoking the 25th Amendment. The amendment states that should the president die, resign, or be “removed from office,” the vice president becomes president. This is according to Trump’s former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe, anyway, who made the claim in an interview that will air on 60 Minutes on Sunday night.
McCabe’s remarks predictably sent Fox News into a tizzy, and later Tucker Carlson discussed the matter with Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz who stated that they represented an assault against the Constitution. To little surprise, Trump himself was watching with rapt attention, and tweeted his take on Dershowitz’s thoughts on Thursday night.
“Trying to use the 25th Amendment to try and circumvent the Election is a despicable act of unconstitutional power grabbing…which happens in third world countries,” the president typed. “You have to obey the law. This is an attack on our system & Constitution.”
“Trying to use the 25th Amendment to try and circumvent the Election is a despicable act of unconstitutional power grabbing…which happens in third world countries. You have to obey the law. This is an attack on our system & Constitution.” Alan Dershowitz. @TuckerCarlson
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2019
Cool cool, so now Trump is trying to make the claim that literally a constitutional amendment is unconstitutional — just another day in paradise, right? Unsurprisingly, by Friday morning the 25th amendment was trending on Twitter for reasons you might expect.
https://twitter.com/AdamWeinstein/status/1096292029401829376
If Dersh would stop saying stupid shit like "using the Constitution is unconstitutional" maybe his friends on Martha's Vineyard would start inviting him to parties again. https://t.co/cSs5sO4Wrz pic.twitter.com/Xmy6DdkB85
— shauna (@goldengateblond) February 15, 2019
trying to use the constitution…to attack the constitution, eh https://t.co/2C9SsZOJBd
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) February 15, 2019
https://twitter.com/LouiseMensch/status/1096442780707098624
Uh, I know I’m not a HARVARD LAW PROFESSOR who appears regularly on Fox News but I’m pretty sure the 25th Amendment is PART of the Constitution which means invoking it would not be an unconstitutional power grab https://t.co/TPFTleKksT
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) February 15, 2019
this is practice for the 22nd amendment https://t.co/xG35OCqL9l
— maura quint (@behindyourback) February 15, 2019
That Trump tweet calling the 25th Amendment "unconstitutional power grabbing" is funny because the 25th Amendment is part of the Constitution.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 15, 2019
I’ve studied coups & coup attempts in Zambia, Thailand, Madagascar, Tunisia & Côte d’Ivoire. A coup is an unconstitutional transfer of power, usually executed by the military. The 25th Amendment is a constitutional means to remove a president from office—the opposite of a coup. https://t.co/8D4si1wUHB
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) February 15, 2019
Trump called the 25th Amendment “unconstitutional.”
It literally IS the constitution.
— Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) February 15, 2019
https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1096249296964456449
Fact check: The 25th Amendment is a part of the Constitution of the United States of America. https://t.co/h0tfRR2l9d https://t.co/mIKPbRSXRW
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) February 15, 2019
The 25th Amendment is literally part of the Constitution. https://t.co/IYCYsQYPnU
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) February 15, 2019
Although Trump did indeed declare a national emergency on Friday morning, the move will likely wind up being tied up in courts before he can act on it.