Reflections/Jonathan Gramling
Invoke the 25th Amendment Now
In some ways, I am very tired about opening up my news websites each day only to have headlines about Donald Trump on the front page above the fold so to speak. That has been going on since Trump was sworn in to the presidency on January 20, 2025. If Trump didn’t do something that deserved headlines, he would do or say something outlandish to preserve his spot on the front page.
Now a lot of it is born of his white superiority complex and white nationalism. When Trump’s measures on immigration, visas and birthright citizenship are taken together, they clearly form a policy of preventing the U.S. from becoming a minority majority country. I can hear the pigs from the novel “1984” saying, ‘White South Afrikaners good, Somalis bad.’
In 2024-2025, the U.S. population grew by .5%, the lowest rate in several years. Of course Trump had better watch out or he will put the U.S. on the same demographic trend as Japan whose restrictive immigration policies have led to population decline, which will have negative impacts on the Japanese economy for generations to come. Apparently Trump doesn’t care if everything is going to “hell in a hand basket” all around him as long as it is white people in control.
And then there is Trump’s plan to bring Alcatraz back into service as a federal prison like the U.S. Navy bringing in World War I battleships back into service, outdated technology and all.
Trump wants $152 million to rebuild and reopen Alcatraz as a secure prison. Trump loves to spend federal funds, especially since he doesn't contribute a dime to federal coffers. He uses the federal tax system to pay for all of his private sector bankruptcies. He would probably rename it Trump Island out of vanity.
And then there is Trump starting the Iran War. I can’t help but feel that the Israeli government cajoled and stroke Trump’s massive ego, perhaps telling him that he would go down in history as the American president who brought permanent peace to the Middle East. And after the massive bombing of Iran and the expansion of the war to Lebanon, even though a ceasefire was called, the Israeli government continued to bomb Lebanon. I sometimes feel that this is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war and Trump is just the puppet on a string attached to Netanyahu’s hand. Israel has some very real security issues in the Middle East. It is a millennial, complex problem that isn’t prone to easy fixes. But Trump’s ego, I believe, is making it worse, not better.
And then there is this environmental doozy. Trump has been allowing environmentally sednsive federal lands to be explored by the oil and gas industry for oil production. He has relaxed federal rools as it relates to the disposal of coal ash to make coal more profitable.
According to CNN, the Trump administration will pay a French firm $1 billion in taxpayer funds to NOT build wind farms and instead invest in fossil fuels in the U. S. Trump is trying to kill our future generations just to make a buck with the oil industry. I am convinced that he actually hates humanity and envisions himself boarding a spaceship once he has made Earth uninhabitable in pursuit of wealth and power. The man is insane and will kill us all.
Each decision that Trump makes reflects that he has lived in a wealthy bubble his entire life. I truly feel that he looks at the U.S. Government as his own public company for him to use as he wants and to make whatever decision he wants to make — courtesy of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave him blanket immunity. Why else would hew drape government buildings with banners depicting his image? He feels that he should decide whatever he wants and everyone should fall in step.
I am sure that everyone has a Trump tipping point and I have had a bunch of them that Trump has run over. I have thought he should be removed from office several months into his second term.
But when Trump talked about bombing Iran, telling them to give into his demands “or you’ll be living in Hell,” completely ignored the message of Easter.
And then Trump posted on Truth Social an AI generated depiction of himself as Jesus, that was too much for me even though I was willing to impeach him a long time ago. Trump was arrogant and blasphemous and later said that he though it was a depiction of himself as a doctor. If he truly believed that, he should be removed from office because he is devoid of reality and prone to constant delusions.
Section 4 of the 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states:
“Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.”
We need to get the process going before Trump is the death of us all.
