Former White House Counsel Bob Bauer on Lawfare covers an unusual approach to the 25th amendment (the one which gives the Executive Branch an option for replacing the President if he becomes incapacitated) – a temporary use while Trump defends himself:
Now the President may and surely will reply that, in pronouncing the Russia controversy to be bogus, he is delivering a judgment in the national interest that, as Commander-in-Chief, he cannot avoid making. A political motivated, contrived scandal serves only to cripple his presidency. It also interferes with major shifts in foreign policy he deems urgent, such as rebuilding a damaged relationship with Russia to allow for collaboration on matters of common interest. So, yes, he might say: he will do what he can to fight off this investigation as a metastasizing attack on his presidency.
The defect in this line of argument is that it ignores his Department of Justice’s conclusion that an independent review of the Russia matter is warranted and required, and a determination along similar lines by a Congress controlled by his own party. The executive and legislative branches are mostly united in the view that the question of Russian interference with U.S. political and governmental processes is not, in fact, bogus, even if much about this Russian activity—including its nature and seriousness—remains to be known. Moreover, the President’s insistence to the contrary is fatally infected with self-interest. It is hard to credit him with making an independent executive judgment, and whatever conclusion he has reached is not grounded in a thorough exploration of the facts that now falls to Congress and the Special Counsel to conduct.
It seems highly unlikely that the President sees or accepts this conflict of constitutional duty and private interests. But there may come a point when it cannot be denied or ignored.
Perhaps the president, in theory anyway, would have the option of temporarily stepping down under the procedures of the 25th Amendment. He would not do so because he is ill or, in a medical sense incapacitated. He would make a concededly unanticipated use of the Amendment because he has this vitally important duty that he cannot perform while pursuing his personal defense—in the terms of the Amendment, he is “unable” in these circumstances to “discharge the … duties of his office.”
But this choice on his part is unlikely in the extreme. This exceptional conflict will persist, with profound consequences for the course of this investigation and the future of his presidency.
And I think it would be a blow to his ego that he couldn’t really sustain. Despite his continued use of dubious business tactics and the occasional bankruptcy, he requires that everyone thinks he’s wonderful – including himself. Using the 25th Amendment could easily be construed as a failure on his part, although of course a fantasy-prone personality such as his might also make it into a paranoid conspiracy reason – and, indeed, it wouldn’t be out of line to suspect a large chunk of America, the knowledgeable chunk, is quite worried about the damage he and his minions are doing to the United States.
