Brennan Says 25th Amendment Drafted With Trump's Presidency in Mind

Former CIA Director John Brennan said Saturday that the 25th Amendment "was written with" President Trump "in mind," remarks made as multiple Democrats have called for Trump's removal from office through constitutional means.

Brennan's statement came during a weekend appearance and reflects escalating pressure from within the Democratic Party to invoke the amendment, which allows for presidential removal if the vice president and a majority of cabinet members declare the president unfit for office. The former intelligence official did not specify which actions or statements by Trump prompted his characterization of the amendment's original purpose.

Multiple Democratic lawmakers have publicly advocated for invoking the 25th Amendment in recent days, though the mechanism has never been successfully used to remove a sitting president. The amendment, ratified in 1967, was designed as a safeguard following concerns about presidential incapacity that emerged after President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

Brennan served as CIA Director under President Barack Obama from 2013 to 2017 and has been a frequent public critic of Trump's administration. His comments add weight to a growing chorus of Democratic voices calling for constitutional action, though such a move would require Vice President JD Vance and a supermajority of cabinet members to vote for removal—a threshold widely viewed as politically unrealistic in the current administration.

Context

The 25th Amendment has been invoked only once in U.S. history for its intended purpose: in 1985, President Ronald Reagan temporarily transferred power to Vice President George H.W. Bush while undergoing cancer surgery. The amendment was drafted following the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy, when constitutional ambiguity about presidential succession created a power vacuum for 14 months.

Democratic calls for Trump's removal represent a shift in the party's approach. Previous efforts to remove Trump relied on impeachment, which requires a two-thirds majority in the Senate to convict. Trump was impeached twice during his first term but acquitted both times, with insufficient Republican support for conviction.

What's Next

For the 25th Amendment to be invoked, Vice President Vance would need to initiate the process, and a supermajority of the cabinet would need to vote for removal within a narrow timeframe. Neither condition appears likely given the administration's unified structure. Democrats' public invocation of the amendment appears designed primarily to maintain pressure on Trump rather than to achieve removal, setting a precedent for how the party frames disagreements with the current administration.