Don for good? US politicians 'meeting to discuss removing Donald Trump from office' after protestors storm Capitol

A group of senators and members of Congress are meeting secretly to discuss invoking the 25th Amendment to take Trump out of the White House, it has been claimed this morning. 

The move was prompted after Trump supporters violently stormed the Capitol on Wednesday to protest the results of the presidential election.

Under the 25th Amendment a president can be removed if they are unable to discharge the powers and duties of their office.

In the more than 50 years since the Constitution was amended to create a way to remove a president unable to do their job, the process has never been triggered.

However, Marg Brennan of CBS reported on Wednesday night that some Cabinet secretaries are indeed considering this, though it’s unclear how serious this effort is.

Under that amendment, if the vice president and a majority of Cabinet secretaries conclude the president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” they can put that in writing and send it to congressional leaders.

Once that happens, the vice president immediately becomes acting president. If the president disputes it, Congress decides the matter, with a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate needed to keep the vice president in charge.

Although Section 4 of the amendment has never been invoked, due to Trump’s erratic governance, it’s come up often during his presidency — for instance, former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein discussed invoking it after Trump fired FBI director James Comey in 2017.

With days left in his tenure, the amendment was mentioned again after the head of the National Association of Manufactures said Trump incited the violence in an attempt to retain power.

"This is sedition and should be treated as such," said Jay Timmons, the group's president and CEO.

He was joined by a growing chorus of calls that included the head of the left-leaning advocacy group Public Citizen, the head of the NAACP and Vermont Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican.

"President Trump should resign or be removed from office by his Cabinet, or by the Congress," Scott said in a series of tweets.

Florida Rep. Charlie Crist added: “The 25th Amendment allows for the removal of a President,” tweeted Crist, a former GOP governor who became a Democrat in 2012. “It's time to remove the President.”

According to TMZ, there is a meeting “going on right now at an undisclosed location in DC where a group of senators and members of Congress are talking about how to invoke the 25th Amendment to yank Trump from the White House”.

TMZ in turn says this is according to American Urban Radio Network's White House Correspondent April Ryan.

Ms Ryan also tweeted this morning: "Rep. Ilhan Omar says she is drafting new articles of Impeachment against Trump. The Minnesota Congresswoman blames him for his supporters' attempt at an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday."

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