Democrats have developed a peculiar habit over the past few years. When the ballot box doesn’t deliver, when their policy arguments fall flat, when the president they loathe keeps racking up results – they skip the 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 has become their favorite toy. Ratified in 1967 for genuinely dire circumstances – think presidential incapacity after an assassination attempt or a catastrophic medical event – it was never intended as an escape hatch for sore losers. Yet here we are, watching Democratic leaders treat it like a fire alarm they can pull every time a Trump rally clip makes them uncomfortable.

From Fox News:

California Gov. Gavin Newsom called for invoking the 25th Amendment against President Donald Trump, calling the president “mentally ill” following Trump’s controversial remarks involving Los Angeles and San Diego.

“Donald Trump is mentally ill. TIME FOR THE 25TH!” Newsom said in statements provided to multiple media outlets.

All caps. Exclamation point. The full 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 some measured constitutional analysis. He was doing what he always does – 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. And here’s the thing worth noting: 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.

The context Newsom doesn’t want you to hear

So what did Trump actually say that triggered this constitutional fire drill? At a campaign rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, the president was making a pointed argument about Iran’s nuclear ambitions – specifically, what a nuclear-armed Tehran could have meant for American cities.

“They can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego,” Trump said. “This is a very small price to pay.”

Ripped from context, sure, that sounds alarming. Which is 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.

A convenient case of amnesia

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, every confused wander toward the wrong exit – all dismissed as “cheap fakes” or a childhood stutter. Nothing to see here, move along.

Biden is now conspicuously absent from the midterm campaign trail. Obama and Harris are carrying the water. Yet somehow, not a single Democrat who currently 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. He told Americans to ignore what they saw with their own eyes. Now he wants those same Americans to trust his armchair psychiatry of a political rival. Bold strategy.

What this is really about

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. Governing is hard. Tweeting in all caps about the 25th Amendment is easy.

The amendment they keep cheapening

Every time Newsom and his allies invoke this constitutional safeguard as a partisan weapon, they erode something Americans may genuinely need someday. The 25th Amendment exists for real emergencies – not for governors nursing a grudge and chasing a headline.

Voters can tell the difference between a president making a forceful national security argument and a political opponent who simply cannot stomach the fact that Trump is still in the Oval Office. Newsom’s all-caps fury reveals nothing about the president’s fitness for office. It does, however, tell us everything we need to know about his own.

Key Takeaways

• Newsom has repeatedly weaponized the 25th Amendment as a political cudgel against Trump.
• Trump’s rally remarks about Iran were deliberately stripped of context by his critics.
• Democrats shielded Biden from cognitive scrutiny but now openly question Trump’s fitness.
• The 25th Amendment was designed for genuine crises, not partisan grievances.

Sources: Fox News