LinkedIn on Wednesday, April 8, 2026

Without a doubt, there are a good number of Republicans in Congress who have long been dreaming of the day when Donald J. Trump would go away.  That day has come as a result of President Trump having threatened the people of Iran with annihilation.  According to international law, just the threat of annihilation is illegal.  More importantly, according to common sense and all manner of normal and reasonable considerations, it was a stupendously ridiculous and dangerous thing to do.

Not only was the threat illegal, not only has the President trashed our relationships with essential allies and encouraged our adversaries while leaving the terrorist government of Iran up in the polls, so to speak, and Israel’s leadership way down…  In addition to all that and more, the President’s reckless and vulgar play has made our friends and foes alike wondering about our willingness to use nuclear weapons to accomplish his objectives.

“Yikes!”

I heard that.  Yes, President Trump is as dumb as he is nuts.  So dangerously out of control is he that it’s occurred to people in Congress and elsewhere in government and among his most prominent supporters that he has to go.  Now.  That even waiting for the Democrats to takeover Congress in January – if that happens – is too long.

There are two options.  One is the 25th Amendment that allows the Vice President – who, among the President’s closest advisors, voiced the only objection to our attacking Iran – and a majority of the cabinet Secretaries to remove President Trump subject to Congressional approval.  Vance would immediately become President.  Think of it as a Constitutionally acceptable coup to remove a President deemed no longer able to perform his or her duties.

Even if this is something the requisite people would consider, their problem is that, if a Republican-led Congress doesn’t make the replacement of the President permanent, Trump would return to his office and all hell would break loose.

Needless to say, the 25th Amendment is in serious need of dis-enactment or, at the very least, serious revisions.

No, the only real solution is impeachment in the House followed by conviction in the Senate.  Unlike the impeachments that occurred in Trump’s first term, the illegality of his behavior, albeit with respect to international law, is not in doubt.  There is no valid argument of immunity to be made.  His attorneys will make that argument, that Trump’s threats of annihilation, however dangerous and otherwise stupid, were made in the course his carrying out his duties as President, but that argument will fail in a court of impeachment which is not an ordinary court of law.

Are there enough Republicans in the House and then the Senate to charge and convict?  I think so.  I think this is the off-ramp for which a good number of Republicans in Congress have been waiting.  Some courage on their part will be required, but it’s relatively minimal in light of his extraordinary incompetence and the scope of the mess the President has caused by virtue of his war against Iran. That, and because, under the circumstances in the context of all that’s going on, it is political suicide for Congress not to try. Republicans have got to know that the sound of their silence since the President’s threat of annihilation is deafening.

Step one for the Republicans in the House? Replace Speaker Johnson with someone less blindly loyal to President Trump.