'The View' co-host demands 25th Amendment be used against Trump, suggests Cabinet could do it after midterms
Co‑hosts of “The View” debate invoking the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump
When ABC’s long‑running daytime talk show “The View” came back from its summer break on Tuesday, a handful of its co‑hosts turned the program into a platform for discussing a constitutional mechanism that some Democrats believe could be used to remove former President Donald Trump from the presidency.
The 25th Amendment, which allows the president’s Cabinet to declare the president incapacitated, was at the center of the conversation. Host Sunny Hostin opened the debate by asking when the amendment might actually be used. “My question is when do we really start, in earnest — and I mean this honestly — considering the 25th Amendment,” she said. She then added that she believed the amendment could be invoked “when the Republicans lose the House, and they lose the Senate, they’re going to want to have some control over this person, this person that is in the office, and JD Vance would then be that replacement and I wonder if the Cabinet then looks at each other and says, okay, we’ve got to take control of this, 25th Amendment.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin offered a more skeptical view. “I think if they didn’t do it after January 6, in that period before he left office in 2021, it’s never going to happen,” she said, indicating that the Cabinet would not consider taking such an extreme step outside of a crisis.
The discussion also touched on Trump’s perceived lack of competence, a topic that has resurfaced since the former president returned to the White House in 2021. Whoopi Goldberg noted that Trump had “an opportunity to do so much more than he offered them, and they don’t consider him to be serious anymore, and I’m worried.” She added that if President Biden had behaved similarly, she would have called for a removal, but said Trump’s conduct was not “presidential” and therefore “not helpful.”
Joy Behar, the show’s longtime co‑host, asked a rhetorical question that drew laughter from the audience: “When are they going to invoke the 25th Amendment? Does he have to run naked into the White House or what? What is that amendment for if not for this?” The question was prompted after Trump unveiled plaques under portraits of Barack Obama and Joe Biden on the new White House Presidential Walk of Fame in December 2025, an action that Behar had previously criticized.
The conversation came at a time when House Democrats are pushing for a bill that would make it easier to remove a president through the 25th Amendment. The bill’s supporters argue that it would allow a rapid response in the event of presidential incapacity, while opponents warn it could be used as a political weapon.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Meanwhile, “The View” has launched a campaign urging viewers to support the show during a Federal Communications Commission investigation into its status as a political program. The campaign includes a petition asking the FCC to recognize the show as a bona fide news interview program and a commercial that encourages viewers to tell the agency to let the public decide who can appear on the program.