All those who solemnly predicted that the awesome power and weighty history of the presidency would calm down America’s first orange president got it exactly wrong. So wrong, in fact, that less than a week into his presidency, there’s a very special word that is already floating around in the national conversation. You can ask Bernie Sanders:
"That is a total nonsensical statement," he told reporters at a weekly press conference, adding that it is a "delusional statement."
Or check in with any number of columns.
The dangers of the Trump delusions are clear.
Nothing is beyond his ability to create illusion for all, and delusions for himself.
It matters when the president of the United States lies about our democracy with claims that border on delusional.
And maybe that’s what’s behind this nice little burst of constitutional scholarship.
As Donald Trump creates a phantom audience, illusory voters, and sinks into paranoia over “fake news,” there’s a big problem: who is going to put Trumpy in the corner?
Donald Trump is either lying or ...
One might argue that he is not lying because he is delusional — but if that is so, doesn’t that justify his immediate removal based on mental incapacitation as stated in Section 4 of the 25th Amendment?
There’s a bit of a problem with Trump and the 25th. First, there’s Section 3. That’s the part where the president himself can dash off a note to Congress saying he no longer feels up to the task of throwing a blanket of silence over executive agencies and humiliating Mexican officials. That seems … unlikely.
Then there’s Section 4. That’s the part where the vice president, along with a majority of cabinet officials, can hand the president a time out and everyone slides over one chair. The option has been there ever since the 25th Amendment ticked over the magic number of states in 1967, but it’s never been invoked.
Mike Pence pulling that string might also seem rather a low odds event, but there’s another complication—what exactly would be considered a majority of Trump’s cabinet? With only three candidates having cleared the Senate and such critical posts as State, Treasury, and Interior still void for the moment, is there anyone who could pull the switch if Donald Trump continues his (and really, delusional is a kind word) witch hunt for imaginary voter fraud or orders the Marines to storm Michigan Avenue and take Chicago?
Actually, there is another option. The wording calls for either “majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments” or “such other body as Congress may by law provide." But then we’re down to requiring people like James Inhofe and Louie Gohmert to declare someone unfit … and they have to be worried about the slipperiness of that slope.
So while Section 4 is out there, willing, able, and more than deserving of its chance to save the nation, the chances that it will be implemented seem almost … delusional.