The casual way in which the 25th Amendment is now invoked on daytime television says far more about the degradation of political discourse than it does about the mental fitness of the sitting president.
On Wednesday’s episode of The View, co-host Whoopi Goldberg openly called for President Donald Trump to be removed from office, not over criminal conduct or constitutional violations, but based on her personal discomfort after watching a speech delivered at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Goldberg’s demand was not framed as a serious constitutional argument. It was a reaction. After a clip of Trump’s remarks aired, she declared, “The 25th Amendment. It’s time,” repeating the phrase for emphasis.
When prompted by Sunny Hostin about whether she believed the president lacked his faculties, Goldberg responded that she had felt that way “before now.” The standard, in other words, was not medical evaluation, expert testimony, or institutional concern, but longstanding personal distaste.
The conversation quickly devolved into a pile-on. Joy Behar described Trump’s recent appearances as the “cherry on the cake,” while Goldberg piled on metaphors about “lines in the sand” and general unease.
Behar then cited former Trump associates offering unflattering opinions about his demeanor, as if disgruntled ex-employees constitute a neurological assessment. Goldberg’s response to Alyssa Farah Griffin’s reminder that Trump’s Cabinet supports him was revealing: if they won’t remove him, then “it’s time for them to go, too.”
This is not how the 25th Amendment is supposed to work, and the flippancy matters. The amendment was designed as a safeguard for extreme circumstances—situations where a president is incapacitated and unable to discharge the duties of the office. It is not a pressure-release valve for partisan frustration or a rhetorical weapon to be deployed when an administration refuses to behave in ways its critics find comforting.
What makes this episode notable is not that television hosts dislike Donald Trump. That has been a given for nearly a decade. What stands out is the normalization of treating removal from office as an emotional response rather than a constitutional process.
Discomfort is not incapacity. Rambling metaphors are not medical evidence. Long press conferences are not proof of cognitive failure, particularly from a president known for improvisation and extended public remarks throughout his career.
