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Unfit. Unhinged. Unchecked.
Trump just handed the country a written case for invoking the Twenty-Fifth Amendment—and if we ignore it, the danger is on us.
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Cliff’s Note: I was going to write a similar piece myself—but Dan Perry already did it better, more clearly, and more forcefully than I could, so I asked his permission to republish it here. Everyone needs to see the letter Trump sent to the Prime Minister of Norway, because the reason so many Americans still don’t grasp how dangerous and mentally unfit he is, is that legacy corporate media refuses to show the full, unfiltered truth.
This article was originally published by Dan Perry on his Substack, Ask Questions Later, under the same title “Time for the Twenty-Fifth”. Blue Amp Media is republishing it here with permission.
by Dan Perry
Last month around this time, in an article entitled “Peak Lowlife,” I asked whether Trump’s demonic reaction to the murder of US cultural icon Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle was finally enough to make Republicans understand that he is not an acceptable leader. To anyone who has succeeded in the natural instinct to try to forget, Trump then seemed to rejoice in the murder because Reiner was a critic. The answer to my question, despite some bad polls, was basically no.
Now I must ask the question again, in the wake of Trump’s letter to the prime minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Store. This letter is so absurd that any half-conscious reader must seriously wonder whether the time has not come for a serious discussion of his removal from office via the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution, which enables the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare that a president is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. The process this sets off could transfer authority to the disturbing JD Vance, which is cold comfort indeed — but this is the bed that we have made.
I realize the atmosphere has become so partisan that many people will just swallow any outrage and assume the criticism is automatic, and that there must be some reason or explanation for whatever it is that has people worked up. What’s the big deal, some might ask, about whatever Trump writes to the leader of some distant land that doesn’t even have an NFL team? All I can say is that this is a letter whose every sentence could never have been written by any predecessor, and which provides overpowering evidence for invoking the Twenty-Fifth.
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As a person who has practiced journalism since high school in America, I still think words have value, which I know is quaint. And from that perspective, I declare that this petulant, infantile, and threatening letter to a blameless NATO ally, which will be studied by historians with disbelief, is actually worth a line-by-line examination. Trust me on this, please, and let us proceed forthwith.
SENTENCE ONE: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.
It asserts a false premise: Norway does not “decide” who gets the Nobel Peace Prize, which is awarded by an independent Norwegian committee. And it treats the Nobel Prize as a transactional reward whose non-awarding to him personally should affect geopolitical decisions on the part of the US.
It makes an unsubstantiated and exaggerated claim (“having stopped 8 Wars PLUS”) without evidence or international recognition, implying that restraint and responsibility depend on a personal reward for the president. It suggests a shift away from peace as a principle (“I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace”) in mafia-like language in communication with an ally.
It implies that acting in America’s interest is somehow opposed to thinking “purely of Peace,” and also directly suggests — incredibly — that Trump has until now not been pursuing “what is good and proper for the United States of America” (which, I must admit, he actually has not).
He capitalizes “Country.” It’s starting to look like he really does not know.
SENTENCES TWO AND THREE: Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only a boat that landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also.
It repeats the untruth that China and Russia have been threatening Denmark and ignores the fact that if they did, every NATO country including the US would be obligated to protect it. Moreover, it implies that military power (“cannot protect that land”) determines legitimacy, which is a direct rejection of international law.
It misunderstands how sovereignty works: ownership of territory is not based on who “landed a boat first,” but on continuous governance, international recognition, and legal frameworks — and ignores the fact that Greenland is actually an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, with its own elected government and explicit self-determination rights.
It weakens the moral and legal position of the US in opposing Russian and Chinese territorial expansion elsewhere – by mirroring Russia’s justification for Ukraine and China’s logic in the South China Sea: Sovereignty reduced to superpower preference and military capacity. This will almost certainly embolden these two rivals, potentially sparking wars and leading to death and destruction.
It implies that America has a historical claim equivalent to Denmark’s, which is baseless, and signals to allies that US recognition of borders is conditional and reversible.
SENTENCE FOUR: I have done more for NATO than any person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States.
It is historically false. NATO is the product of decades of collective effort by multiple presidents, governments, militaries, and diplomats across many countries, while Trump has done much to undermine it. He has agitated against NATO for years by calling it “obsolete” and today is bringing it to the breaking point with his astounding refusal to rule out force against a NATO member.
It ignores that NATO already “does something” for the United States every day by extending collective defense, hosting US bases, sharing intelligence, stabilizing Europe, and deterring adversaries. The only time NATO’s mutual defense clause, Article V, was invoked, was for the benefit of the US after 9-11.
It implies that NATO support is conditional on nonsense like Trump receiving personally a Nobel Peace Prize.
SENTENCE FIVE: The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.
It implies that global security depends on US ownership of foreign territory, a claim that no serious strategic framework supports. The US cannot have total control of every territory that needs defending, or whose resources it covets.
It again ignores that Greenland already sits inside a collective defense system that includes the United States. And the US already has extensive military access to Greenland through agreements with Denmark.
It frames Greenland as an object to be controlled rather than a society with rights and self-determination.
Again, the childish capitalizations – “The World,” and “Complete and Total Control of Greenland.” What is up with that??
The signoff – “Thank you! President DJT” – features his bizarre exclamation point (“Thank you for your attention to this matter!”) and the sort of acronym that confers a larger-than-life status in a way no gaudy ballroom can. I suppose he wants to be thought of in the manner of an FDR or JFK (perhaps even MLK, though I actually doubt that for the obvious reason). Sadly, other acronyms entirely far more readily come to mind.
Friends, honestly. It goes beyond disagreements over gun control or tax codes. There is no way this is OK. The president cannot peevishly obsess about the Nobel Prize (he actually compelled the poor actual winner, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, to “give” it to him last week in a truly twisted spectacle). And he cannot write such a letter to a foreign leader. What if he had threatened the PM’s wife Marit in the style that we have grown accustomed to from the “Access Hollywood” tape? Would you then agree that the shit has hit the fan? To quote Trump himself, the world is laughing at us. But it is also crying, and at the same time trembling in fear. Preparing counter-measures as well.
Beyond the preposterous style and substance of the embarrassing and infantile letter, Trump’s obsession with “acquiring” Greenland is a direct threat to American security. It seriously risks shattering NATO, which would cut off US access to 27 bases, risk close to $600 billion in European defense purchases, leave America without allies as its rivals are emboldened, and would precipitate a massive economic crisis. It rivals his friend Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as the bonehead move of the century so far (and that bar is high).
Last month AQL awarded Trump our “Person or Thing of the Year” award for 2025, which we felt was merited on account of his unequalled and impactful array of achievements. These included normalizing constitutional defiance, eroding the rule of law, and turning illegality into standard governance. It included killing untold thousands as well as US soft power by kneecapping USAID, and risking millions of others by weakening FEMA (on top of wanting to dismantle the Department of Education). He dismantled institutional checks, mainstreamed corruption by fusing personal business with state power and converting public office into a revenue stream, and empowered billionaire patrons to shape regulation for private gain. He weakened public health by promoting anti-vaccine ideology, attacked the press to suppress accountability, destabilized the economy through reckless and illegal tariffs which are a tax on Americans and not foreigners, and fractured US alliances. Since these outcomes, which many might consider negative, were willfull, they count as achievements.
But they are terrible, of course, for America and the world.
Now, I know that the Republicans who are in a position to keep Trump in check are very busy indeed, spending their days and nights licking his boots and trembling in fear of being primaried. They may not have time to consult the Constitution. So as a public service, on the cusp of one year since Trump reentered the Oval Office, I offer a handy cheat sheet.
Ratified in 1967, the Twenty-Fifth Amendment provides a constitutional mechanism for dealing with presidential incapacity. Its most consequential provision, Section 4, allows the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare that the president is unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office. Upon that declaration, the vice president immediately becomes acting president. If the president contests the decision, Congress must decide the matter, and a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate is required to keep the president sidelined. That would mean about 20 Republican invertebrates would need to grow a spine.
This is far from likely, even after the November midterm elections, when the lemmings in Congress may feel a bit more free. Hell, the chances are actually tiny, no matter what stupidity Trump does next. But stranger things have happened. These are not many, but they do include the repeat election of “President DJT.”
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