Updated

Updated · Fox News · Jul 17

Newsom Urges 25th Amendment Removal of Trump as Election Speech Sparks 2026 Midterm Clash

Updated

Updated · Fox News · Jul 17

Newsom Urges 25th Amendment Removal of Trump as Election Speech Sparks 2026 Midterm Clash

Q: When medical and political opinions clash, what is the definitive test for a president’s fitness to govern?

The definitive test is not a medical exam or a partisan judgment; it is the constitutional process in Section 4 of the 25th Amendment. That process asks a practical question: whether the president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties” of the office. The Constitution does not define “unable,” and it does not require a specific diagnosis, cognitive score, or public medical finding. Medical opinions can inform the debate, but they are not legally decisive on their own. Under Section 4, the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet, or another body created by Congress, must formally declare the president unable to serve. If the president disputes that declaration, Congress becomes the final arbiter. A two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate is required to keep the vice president as acting president. Without that supermajority, the president resumes authority. That makes the real test one of constitutional proof and institutional consensus, not simply clinical concern or political criticism. Doctors may identify warning signs, and elected officials may raise alarms, but the system ultimately demands a very high threshold of agreement across the executive branch and Congress. In practice, this means presidential fitness is judged less by any single medical standard than by whether the president’s condition is serious enough, and clear enough, to persuade the officials empowered by the Constitution to act.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jul 17

Gavin Newsom said Donald Trump’s Thursday election-integrity address was a “legitimate 25th Amendment moment,” arguing the president showed cognitive impairment and should be removed from office.
Trump’s speech, delivered 4 months before the November midterms, claimed newly declassified documents would show Chinese data theft, long-known election vulnerabilities and fresh evidence of election fraud; those claims were not independently verified.
The 25th Amendment allows the Cabinet to declare a president unfit or Congress to create an independent body, and Newsom’s comments aligned with earlier Democratic efforts led by Rep. Jamie Raskin and backed by Rep. Yassamin Ansari.
Republicans and conservative critics quickly attacked Newsom’s stance as hypocritical, saying Democrats ignored similar concerns about Joe Biden’s mental fitness and warning that trying to remove a duly elected president would destabilize the country.