Why the 25th Amendment is a Trending Topic

America in Turmoil, 19 days until the election

Screenshot Kamala Harris at recent rally (source: @harris_wins on X)

The 25th Amendment is a trending topic on X. In my previous newsletter, I referred briefly, between brackets, to Trump's possible forced exit from the White House if he gets (that is, wins or takes) the 47th Presidency in the United States. I wrote about his irresponsible sellout of the country "in return for power and a jail-free retirement in the White House (until discharged under the 25th Amendment; loyalty, or a lack thereof, usually works both ways)."

Is this a likely scenario if he does become the next president? Rick Wilson of the Lincoln Project wrote, "At this rate if Trump is sworn in, JD Vance will invoke the 25th Amendment in the car on the way back to the White House."

There will be influential people who would prefer to replace Trump with Vance, not least the ones who put him in his present position. There will also be people in Trump's circle who fear going down with him if others push him out, and Trump is not the type to allow such an event to happen.

Word salads, rants, and associations

A key question is how bad his health record is. Unlike Kamala Harris, we don't have insight into his physical or mental health. However, Dr. John Gartner, a psychologist and former professor at Johns Hopkins, gave in a recent interview a medical interpretation of what we undoubtedly all have seen in fragments of his speeches where he doesn't say words but trails off and ends the word with an easy sound: "lady" instead of "later," or “missusss” instead of missiles. These symptoms are called phonemic paraphasia. Dr. Gartner consulted with several colleagues, and all agreed that this is always evidence of brain damage. "It's a neurological smoking gun," especially combined with other aspects of his recent behavior like his confusing rants, word salads, and associations.