New 25th Amendment Push: Bizarre Donald Trump Tweet Sets Off Calls To Remove Him From Office As Mentally Unfit
As part of a series of tweets posted early on Thursday morning, Donald Trump posted one message so bizarre that it has set off a new round of calls to use the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution in order to remove Trump from office on the grounds that he is mentally unfit to lead the country.
In the Twitter posting, Trump suggested that the FBI, the Democratic Party, and the Russian government conspired against him to create the “Steele Dossier,” the private intelligence document containing numerous allegations of Trump’s deep business and personal ties to Russia. The dossier, compiled by former British intelligence agent and Russia expert Christopher Steele, is most famous for the so-called “pee tape” allegation that in 2013 Trump hired two prostitutes to perform a “golden shower” urination show for him in a Moscow hotel room.
But the dossier also contains serious allegations of Trump’s financial ties to Russia. Trump has condemned the dossier as “fake news” and “totally made up facts by sleazebag political operatives.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has also decried the dossier’s allegations as “clearly fake.” But Trump in his tweet early Thursday morning went well beyond simply dismissing the dossier as “fake,” asking if it was the result of a conspiracy among Democrats, the FBI, and Russia.
Workers of firm involved with the discredited and Fake Dossier take the 5th. Who paid for it, Russia, the FBI or the Dems (or all)?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 19, 2017
Trump offered no evidence for his claim that the three entities may have conspired against him to produce the potentially damaging dossier. In the days leading up to last year’s presidential election, the FBI reportedly contracted with Steele — who at that point had already completed the dossier — to continue his research into the Trump-Russia connections. But those payments were never made and Steele performed no further investigations into Trump’s Russia ties.
While the identities of the financiers behind the Steele dossier have never been publicly revealed, according to reports the initial payments came during the early stages of the Republican primary campaign in September of 2015, from a Republican deeply opposed to Trump’s campaign — but not affiliated directly with any of Trump’s Republican rivals.
The 25th Amendment was drafted and ratified following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and is designed to create an orderly transition of power if a president becomes unfit to serve for either medical or psychological reasons.
Richard W. Painter, who served as chief ethics lawyer in the administration of President George W. Bush, was among the first to call for Trump’s removal under the 25th Amendment, based on the strange Trump tweet.
Conspiracy between Russia, the FBI and Democrats? The response to this is clear: Amendment 25. https://t.co/qBkCXNwhZt
— Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) October 19, 2017
Under the 25th Amendment the cabinet and Congress must investigate this plot along with the Bowling Green Massacre and the Obama/UK plot to spy on Trump Tower via microwave ovens. https://t.co/qBkCXNwhZt
— Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) October 19, 2017
Law professor Neil Kaytal, who has argued 34 cases before the United States Supreme Court, also called for Trump’s removal under the 25th Amendment after the tweet.
Keep talking. Amazing you can generate waivers of Executive Privilege & simultaneously build the 25th amendment record all at once https://t.co/TVlhn74Ugd
— Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) October 19, 2017
Other Twitter users soon joined in, posting their own #25thAmendment tweets.
#25thAmendment anyone? https://t.co/ALf8Ui0bpe
— Jo(e)kstah B. Silly (@Joe44923972) October 19, 2017
The voices Donald the voices… we are dealing with a whole other flavor of crazy… 25th amendment anyone? https://t.co/hNPPfgwpLZ
— DualctzT (@THHassan) October 19, 2017
It’s time, or well past time. #25thAmendment https://t.co/k9rw7EuS3n
— R.J. Connors (@RobertJConnors) October 19, 2017
On Wednesday, the day before Trump posted his tweet about the purported FBI-Democratic-Russian conspiracy, Painter and co-author Leanne Watt published an article on NBC News titled, “The 25th Amendment Proves Why Trump’s Mental Health Matters.”
And a group of mental health professionals have created an organization called A Duty To Warn, which is now advocating the removal of Trump from office using the 25th Amendment, on the grounds that Trump “suffers from an incurable malignant narcissism that makes him incapable of carrying out his presidential duties and poses a danger to the nation.”
[Featured Image by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images]
