Cliff’s Note:
On Sunday, the president of the United States posted an image of himself on a black throne surrounded by fire, announced that the Moon belongs to us, and suggested we rename New Mexico. I know. You have seen the screenshots, you have made the joke, and you have moved on, because that is what we all do now.
Here is why you should not move on. David Shuster spent this week on the part nobody screenshotted: earlier this year, during a mission to rescue a downed American pilot in Iran, Trump’s own Cabinet and his own generals decided the commander in chief could not be in the Situation Room. Not would not. Could not. They ran the operation around him because they believed his presence would get Americans killed.
That is not a meme. That is the 25th Amendment’s exact premise, already acted on in secret by the people who took an oath alongside him. David lays out what Section 4 actually requires, why it has never been used this way, and what Congress owes the country before the midterms.
This is the reporting we can do because you pay for it—no advertisers to spook, no network lawyers, no anchor telling us to be careful. If you are reading Blue Amp free, this is the week to fix that. Become a paid subscriber and read the whole thing.
—Cliff
by David Shuster
There have been countless moments over the past ten years when Donald Trump’s bizarre social media posts indicated something with him is very wrong. Sunday now stands at the top of the list.
The President of the United States, who has at his disposal the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the nuclear arsenal, and endless stationery bearing the presidential seal, spent much of the day engaged in an unhinged digital freak show. The performance included AI fantasies, geopolitical doodling, self-coronation and, for good measure, a declaration that the Moon belongs to the United States.
Trump unleashed dozens of posts, including images of himself surrounded by giant robots with glowing eyes and ominous captions.
In one, he appeared amid a dystopian landscape beneath the words “THEY WILL NEVER SLEEP AGAIN.” In another, he sat upon a black throne amid fire, ruins and mechanical giants.
Then came the cartography.
New Mexico, which survived centuries of Spanish rule, Mexican sovereignty, American conquest and statehood, was invited to undergo another administrative reincarnation. Trump suggested that it be renamed “New America,” a proposal accompanied by an AI-crafted image.
The President has no authority simply to rename a state, but constitutional limitations have never been of any concern to Trump.
Then came the Moon.
Trump posted an image of it floating serenely above the Earth, decorated with an American flag and the majestic announcement: “THE MOON IS OURS.” The post was archived at 1:56 p.m. Sunday.
One might conclude that the Presidency now belongs to an exceptionally excitable 12 year old with access to an image generator. However, there were more serious items in the President’s bizarre and demeaning performance.
Trump shared an image depicting Iran’s territory reshaped in the outline of his own face, and another suggesting the destruction of Kharg Island.
He also boasted that he had made “Hundreds of Billions of Dollars” from stocks and other holdings while asserting that he did it for the country rather than himself.
Most Americans, confronted with this lunatic spectacle, might ask a very old-fashioned question: Is the President capable of doing the job?
This is where the Twenty-Fifth Amendment enters the equation. The amendment does not provide a constitutional trapdoor to remove presidents who take actions that are offensive, foolish, vulgar, or ridiculous. Section 4 establishes a procedure under which the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet can declare that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. If the President contests this declaration, the issue goes to Congress where two thirds vote in both houses would be necessary to keep the President from resuming his powers.
This is an exceptionally challenging threshold, and perhaps deservedly so.
A U.S. President does not become constitutionally incapacitated because he or she posts a silly picture, or two, or twenty.
