Rep. Maxine Waters called for the 25th Amendment to be used to determine whether “something’s wrong” with President Trump, citing his attempt to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. The amendment’s Section 4, which lets the vice president and Cabinet declare a president unable to serve, has never been invoked.
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., called on Friday for the 25th Amendment to be used against President Donald Trump, saying it was time to invoke the constitutional provision “to determine that something’s wrong with this president.” Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, made the remarks in an Aug. 29, 2025, appearance on MSNBC’s “The Weeknight,” according to Fox News.
Her comments came days after Trump moved to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, a step that Waters argued could destabilize the economy.
What prompted the call
On Monday, Aug. 25, Trump posted on social media a letter addressed to Cook announcing that he was removing her from the Fed’s Board of Governors, citing allegations that she misrepresented information on mortgage applications. The Justice Department is investigating the allegations. Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the Fed’s board, has not been charged with any crime.
Cook sued Trump on Thursday, Aug. 28, arguing that the president had not met the legal standard of removing a Fed governor “for cause” and asking the court to let her keep her seat. U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb held a hearing on Friday that ended after about two hours of arguments without a ruling, according to the Associated Press. Cook’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, argued that she had not been given notice or a chance to respond. “There was never cause to begin,” he said. Justice Department attorney Yaakov Roth questioned what purpose a hearing would serve, asking: “What’s the purpose of saying, ‘Well the president needed to hear her out?'”
The case is widely expected to reach the Supreme Court.
What Waters said
On MSNBC, Waters argued that the attempt to remove Cook could “upend the entire economy,” affecting Wall Street and interest rates, and suggested Trump was acting in ways he could “personally benefit from.” She said Democrats “have to move very aggressively” and that it was not a time for “lingering” and hoping that “the courts will help us,” according to Fox News. She also described the president’s actions on the Fed as a “danger to this country and to our democracy,” the Tampa Free Press reported.
Host Symone Sanders-Townsend called it “jarring” to hear Waters call for the 25th Amendment and noted that presidents have been impeached for “much less.”
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., who appeared on the same program, argued that Trump’s real target is Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whom she said Trump considers “a bridge too far” to fire directly. She called the mortgage fraud accusation against Cook “preposterous” and said the move was an attempt to “meddle with the component parts of the Federal Reserve.”
Fox News Digital said it had reached out to the White House for comment. Trump and his allies have said the president has the authority to remove Cook over the mortgage allegations.
How the 25th Amendment works
The 25th Amendment, ratified in 1967, sets out procedures for presidential succession and for situations in which a president cannot carry out the duties of the office. Sections 1 through 3 cover a vacancy in the presidency, a vacancy in the vice presidency, and a president voluntarily handing power to the vice president, as several presidents have done temporarily during medical procedures.
Section 4, the part Waters referred to, allows the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare in writing to congressional leaders that the president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” The vice president then becomes acting president. If the president disputes the declaration, he resumes his powers unless the vice president and a Cabinet majority reaffirm their judgment within four days. Congress then has 21 days to decide, and a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate is required to keep the vice president in charge.
Section 4 has never been invoked. Because it depends on the president’s own vice president and Cabinet, and then on a two-thirds supermajority in both chambers, it is considered extremely difficult to use. Vice President JD Vance and Trump’s Cabinet have given no indication of supporting any such step, and Republicans control both the House and the Senate.
Political context
Waters, a longtime critic of Trump, called for his impeachment during his first term.
Calls to use the 25th Amendment against a sitting president are not new. During Trump’s first term, some Democrats urged its use, most notably after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, when the House passed a resolution asking then-Vice President Mike Pence to invoke it. Pence declined. Some Republicans also raised the amendment in questioning President Joe Biden’s fitness for office before he left the 2024 race.
For now, the dispute over Cook’s removal is playing out in court, where Judge Cobb is weighing Cook’s request to remain on the Fed board while her lawsuit proceeds.
Source: Fox News
