Ed Markey calls to ‘invoke the 25th Amendment’

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) called to remove President Donald Trump from office via the 25th Amendment due to Trump’s recent efforts to acquire Greenland. 

Markey was responding to the letter Trump sent to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. This letter included complaints that Trump’s ambitions to take over Greenland were partially because he was rejected for the Nobel Peace Prize last year.

The 25th Amendment establishes procedures for the transfer of presidential power and provides a means for the president to be removed from office if they are incapable of serving. This amendment was ratified in 1967 following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

While the amendment was invoked when President Richard Nixon resigned in 1974, it has only been used temporarily four other times in history, when presidents underwent medical procedures. The most recent example was November 2021, when then-President Joe Biden transferred power to Vice President Kamala Harris for 85 minutes while he underwent a colonoscopy.

Under Section 4, the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet may notify the president pro tempore of the Senate and the speaker of the House that the president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office,” in which case the vice president becomes acting president. This section of the amendment has never been used against a president. 

Democrats last pushed to invoke the amendment in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack in 2021. Markey has served in the Senate since winning his first election in 2012.

Republican lawmakers were alone when they called for Harris to invoke the amendment in February 2024 after a special counsel report described the president as a “well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.”

Trump’s effort to make Greenland U.S. territory has split lawmakers. While Trump has the support of some within the GOP, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) previously foreshadowed another resolution to curb Trump’s war powers, this time with Greenland. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) also revealed on Sunday that the acquisition effort has little Republican support.

EUROPE STANDS ‘UNITED’ BEHIND GREENLAND AS IT READIES RESPONSE TO TRUMP TARIFF THREAT

“On the war powers, or on militarily invading Greenland, I’ve heard of no Republican support for that,” Paul said on NBC News’s Meet the Press. “Even the most hawkish members of our caucus have said they won’t support that.”

The Washington Examiner has reached out to the White House for comment.