Former GOP congressman Joe Walsh calls for 25th Amendment after Trump's '50-state' claim

Former Republican congressman Joe Walsh called for the 25th Amendment to be invoked against President Donald Trump after he claimed that he had won all 50 states if there was an honest count. It is not immediately clear whether he was referring to 2020 or 2024. Walsh quipped that Trump should be locked in a padded room, typically used in psychiatric wards to prevent patients from harming themselves involuntarily.

A known Trump critic, Walsh revived his call for the President's removal after Trump claimed to have ended eight wars, with a ninth on the way. "It could be ten. I do not think a president has ended one war," Trump said at an event where he announced a $700 million investment into the US coal industry. The amendment establishes formal procedures for replacing a president in the event of death, removal, resignation, or incapacitation.

The ex-Tea Party firebrand's remarks reflect a growing unease about whether the President is fit to serve in the Oval Office. This is a question no longer confined to political opponents but one that is beginning to test the limits of constitutional process itself. Walsh may be a registered Democrat now, but his conservative roots mean his break from Trump is likely to resonate beyond the left.

Walsh is not alone. Democratic activist Harry Sisson has repeatedly flagged Trump's alleged drowsiness in public, verbal stumbles, and frantic social media posting as signs of a "mental health episode," and has similarly called for his removal. At 79, Trump is the oldest person in American history to have taken the presidential oath at his second inauguration in 2025, and will become the oldest sitting president in history if he serves through August 15, 2028. That milestone has only intensified public debate about his fitness.

Many believe that this has led to Trump's physical examination three times within a year. He has also repeatedly argued there is no reason to doubt his fitness, highlighting results from his latest examination, which he described as "extremely good," to quell concerns. Trump found support in Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said he has never seen the President fall asleep. "On the contrary, the guy doesn't sleep, which is a big problem, because he calls me at 2 in the morning, he calls me at 5 in the morning...I like to sleep a little bit," Rubio said.

The President has also leaned on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, or MoCA, to tout his mental sharpness. Medical experts, however, noted it is a 10-minute screening tool used to detect early signs of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, not a measure of cognitive health. Even late-night hosts have weighed in: "...it's incredibly easy. I took it myself. I got a perfect score," Jimmy Kimmel said during a monologue on his show, dismissing the test's value outright.