Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) speaks to the media outside the U.S. Capitol after the House of Representatives voted to pass President Donald Trump’s sweeping spending and tax bill at the U.S. Capitol on July 3, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Ken Cedeno | Reuters
The reluctance expressed by Democrats to remove President Donald Trump from office quickly dissipated following recent threats against Iran, even after ousting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and attacking Iran without seeking Congressional approval.
Truth Social’s post about the war on Tuesday morning threatened that “the entire civilization will perish tonight” and stoked fears of nuclear war, starting a chorus of calls for Trump to be impeached or removed from office by invoking the 25th Amendment.
“This is a genocidal threat and deserves removal from office. The president’s mental capacity is crumbling and cannot be trusted,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-D.) posted on X on Tuesday. “To everyone in the President’s chain of command: You have a duty to refuse unlawful orders, and that includes carrying out this threat.”
President Trump’s ultimatum was announced ahead of a Tuesday night deadline for Iran to reach a deal with the United States to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route that carries the world’s oil from the Persian Gulf.
President Trump is unlikely to be removed from office, and his Cabinet members routinely praise him publicly. But dozens of Congressional Democrats and several Republicans condemned Trump on Tuesday. Some, like Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, called for his impeachment.
“When will my Republican colleagues stand up and kick him out of office?” Omar posted on X.
Introduction of articles of impeachment
Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., introduced articles of impeachment on Monday, citing Trump’s “continuous usurpation of the powers of Congress and commission of murder, war crimes, and acts of piracy.”
Lawmakers like California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna have argued that Section 4 of the 25th Amendment should be invoked, which allows for an involuntary transfer of power if the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet declare the president incompetent.
“If there is any life left in the United States Congress, I’m sure every member and senator today will call for Trump’s removal from office under the 25th Amendment,” Khanna said in a video posted to X. “He is threatening the destruction of entire civilization. He is calling Iran an animal.”
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement late Tuesday that President Trump should be removed from office in some way.
“If the Cabinet is not willing to invoke the 25th Amendment and come to its senses, Republicans must reconvene Congress to end this war.”
The White House criticized calls for President Trump to be removed from office.
“This is pathetic,” White House Press Secretary Davis Ingle said in an email. “Democrats have been talking about impeaching President Trump even before he was sworn into office. Democrats in Congress are deranged, weak, and ineffective, which is why their approval ratings are at historic lows.”
He was impeached twice but was never convicted by the Senate.
Trump was impeached twice by the House of Representatives during his first term, but was never convicted by the Senate. There have been occasional attempts to impeach Trump this Congress, but none have garnered significant support from Democrats. Only 140 Democrats voted against a bill introduced by Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) in December to impeach Trump.
In December, just 140 Democrats voted to advance a Trump impeachment bill by Rep. Al Green, D-Texas.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who has at times called for President Trump’s impeachment, told CNBC in March that such an effort was off the table, at least as long as Democrats were in the minority in both chambers. And many see impeachment as a losing issue in an election year when Democrats are trying to corner Trump and the Republican Party for economic leeway.
“We will look at that when we take control of the House,” Waters said.
unlikely to be dismissed
However, with Republicans in control of both houses of Congress and no open rebellion within the Trump administration over the Iran war, impeachment and invocation of the 25th Amendment are unlikely at this point. Section 4 of the 25th Amendment has never been invoked, and if Trump claims he is not incapacitated, he would need support from Vice President J.D. Vance (who would assume the role of president if he were to do so), the Cabinet, and ultimately two-thirds of Congress.
Mr. Vance praised Mr. Trump on Tuesday from a stage in Budapest, where he spoke in support of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Still, concerns were raised Tuesday among Republicans and former allies of President Trump.
Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Georgia congresswoman and Trump believer-turned-adversary, called Trump’s posts “evil and insane.”
“The 25th Amendment!!! Not a single bomb has been dropped on America. We cannot kill an entire civilization,” Green posted on X.
Republicans criticize Iranian threat to civilization
Hours after the president first vowed to destroy Iranian civilization, elected Republicans began to push back publicly.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) clashed with President Trump in a social media post Tuesday, slamming Trump’s comments threatening to wipe out entire civilizations.
“The president’s threat that ‘an entire civilization will perish tonight’ cannot be excused as an attempt to gain leverage in negotiations with Iran,” Murkowski said. “This kind of rhetoric is an affront to the ideals that our country has sought to protect and promote around the world for nearly 250 years. It undermines our country’s long-standing role as a beacon of freedom around the world and directly puts Americans at risk both abroad and at home.”
Murkowski, a moderate who has clashed with Trump in the past, said: “All parties involved, especially the president and the Iranian leadership, must quell the unprecedented saber turmoil before it is too late.”
Current Trump supporter Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) broke with the president during a podcast appearance on Monday. Johnson was responding to another post by President Trump on Easter Sunday in which he threatened to attack Iranian bridges and power plants if Iran did not reach a deal soon. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on the podcast “The John Solomon Report” that he hoped Trump’s words were “abuse.”
“I don’t want to see us start blowing up civilian infrastructure,” Johnson said. “We’re not at war with the Iranian people. We’re trying to liberate them.”
And in a statement posted to X on Tuesday, Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas) pushed back against President Trump’s comments, but stopped short of calling for Trump’s removal from office.
“I do not support the destruction of ‘an entire civilization.’ That is not who we are, and it is inconsistent with the principles that have guided America for many years,” Moran wrote. “I have and will continue to support a disciplined, grounded, and strong national defense focused on protecting the safety and security of the American people. But how we protect innocent lives is just as important as how we engage our enemies.”
“America will not destroy civilization,” said Rep. Kevin Kiley, a former California Republican and recent independent, in a post on X.
“Nor do we intend to do it as some kind of negotiating tactic. We should all want a future of freedom, security and prosperity for the Iranian people,” he said, arguing that Congress “has a responsibility to provide oversight regarding ongoing military operations and our obligations under both U.S. law and the international agreements we are signatories to.”
