Tucker Carlson calls for Trump's removal via 25th Amendment over Iran rhetoric

Tucker Carlson called for President Donald Trump's removal under the 25th Amendment, citing his rhetoric about "annihilating" Iran as grounds for Cabinet action. Carlson, a longtime Trump supporter, characterized the statements as threats equivalent to nuclear war. No president has been removed through the 25th Amendment's Section 4.

Quick Facts

Carlson called for Trump's removal under the 25th Amendment
Trump threatened to "annihilate" Iran
Trump warned "a whole civilization will die tonight"
Carlson appeared on NPR's Newsmakers podcast
Carlson spoke at Trump's 2024 Republican convention

Tucker Carlson has called for President Donald Trump to be removed from office under the 25th Amendment, citing Trump's rhetoric about Iran as grounds for removal by the Cabinet. In an NPR interview published on September 24, Carlson, a longtime Trump supporter who spoke at the 2024 Republican convention, said Trump "should have been removed from office by his own Cabinet secretaries the moment he threatened a nuclear attack." Carlson characterized Trump's statements about Iran—including threats to "annihilate" the country and warnings that "a whole civilization will die tonight"—as equivalent to threatening nuclear war and the destruction of humanity.

Carlson's break with Trump centers on the president's military actions against Iran in coordination with Israel. When asked directly if he was invoking the 25th Amendment, which grants the vice president and Cabinet the power to declare a president unfit to discharge the duties of office, Carlson confirmed: "That's correct. He should have been bundled up and taken out. That's a crime. There's no greater crime than that." Carlson suggested that Trump lacked independent authority to make the decision, stating, "I don't think he had the latitude to make this decision on his own."

The 25th Amendment, ratified in 1965, has been invoked only for temporary power transfers during medical procedures—by Presidents Reagan (1985), George W. Bush (2002, 2007), and Biden (2021). No president has ever been removed through Section 4, which would require Cabinet action. When asked about impeachment, Carlson dismissed it as insufficient: "He's not going to be punished for it. They'll get him on corruption or whatever."

Responding to Carlson's comments, the White House pointed to a Trump Truth Social post from April in which Trump criticized Carlson and other former allies as "stupid people" who want Iran to have nuclear weapons. Trump has not explicitly threatened nuclear weapons use against Iran, though his statements about annihilation have prompted calls for removal from other figures, including conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, both former Trump supporters.

Carlson's call marks an escalation in his public critique of Trump on foreign policy. In the NPR interview, he described outside forces as controlling both American political parties—a "uniparty"—and suggested Israel influenced Trump's Iran decision. He also reflected more broadly on his decades in cable television, saying he had called too much attention to the wrong issues and should have focused more on federal tax policy.

Topics

Politics Iran and Middle East War White House and Trump World

#Cabinet #Nuclear rhetoric #25th Amendment #NPR interview #Iran #Donald Trump #constitutional law #Tucker Carlson #Presidential removal

Entities

Why This Matters

The 25th Amendment's Section 4 allows a vice president and Cabinet majority to remove a president deemed unfit; its invocation would trigger constitutional crisis procedures and potentially affect policy implementation and executive continuity. While Section 4 has never been used to remove a sitting president (temporary transfers during medical procedures have occurred in 1985, 2002, 2007, 2021), Carlson's public call—as a former Trump supporter with media platform—signals fracture within conservative coalition over foreign policy decisions, potentially influencing intra-party pressure dynamics and Cabinet-level political calculations regarding Iran military operations.

Timeline & Sources

Jan 1, 1965

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25th Amendment ratified

Jan 1, 1985

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President Ronald Reagan invoked Section 3 of 25th Amendment, transferring power to VP George H.W. Bush before bowel cancer surgery

Jan 1, 2024

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Tucker Carlson speaks at Trump's Republican convention

Sep 24, 2026

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NPR publishes Carlson's Newsmakers podcast interview calling for Trump's removal via 25th Amendment