On The Reel: ‘The West Wing’ Parallel: What ‘Twenty-Five’ Tells Us About Trump And The 25th Amendment
What happens when the president is relieved of office
Picture this for a moment: An emotionally unstable president. A White House desperate to control an out of control news cycle. Chaos wrapping its icy grip around 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. If you said that sounds like America in 2018, you’d be right. But it’s also the scenario at the end of The West Wing’s fourth season. This episode is famous for a few things among fans but, for your purposes as the reader and mine as the guy trying to write this, let’s focus on the title of the show’s season finale:
“Twenty-Five”
Named after the 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, “Twenty-Five” finds fictional president Josiah Bartlet’s daughter kidnapped and held for ransom by a foreign government. The Secret Service agent charged with keeping her safe is killed, and the government is ready to retaliate in kind.
In the real world, we’ve had a buffer group formed against the president in his own White House, followed by a high-ranking member of the Department of Justice jokingly — or not — volunteer to wear a wire. In each instance, there are members of this administration openly pontificating the use of the 25th Amendment as a way to get him out of office. For the first time in possibly forever, the 1st and 2nd Amendment aren’t the only ones American’s seem to care about. But exactly what is the 25th Amendment and, if it were to happen, how would it happen? “Twenty-Five” lays it all out in a simple way that’s good and good for you.
Step 1: The cabinet officials have to make the decision
Realizing he’s emotionally and mentally preoccupied and in no shape to carry out his duties as president, Bartlet, portrayed by Martin Sheen, tells his Chief of Staff to “assemble the cabinet.” No president can just be ousted because this isn’t Cuba after all. A majority of the people a president has assigned to run the Federal Government must agree his or her time is up. That cabinet consists of the Vice President and the heads of the 15 agencies in the Executive Branch. For those playing at home, that’s the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Defense, Department of Justice, Department of Education, and the Department of Homeland Security, just to name a few.
There does not need to be a unanimous decision, as President Bartlet says when he speaks to his cabinet. But Bartlet being Bartlet, he wants a unanimous decision anyway.
Before we move to step two, let’s clarify when it’s appropriate to go this route. Obviously, a president deciding he/she is no longer fit for office is good enough. Cabinet officials could also determine on their own if the president can still be president. If the president disagrees, the vice president and the cabinet officials have four days to issue a second declaration. If they choose not to state their case again, the president resumes his duties. Also, things would get really awkward.
Step 2: Determine who takes over for the president
The country does need someone to run it and in the event this happened, that responsibility would fall to the vice president. We’d have Mike Pence as a president if this were all to go down. Won’t comment on that, won’t have anything snide to say. Just going to leave that there and you can talk among yourselves.
But what if there is no vice president? On West Wing, President Bartlet’s second-in-command resigned, meaning the responsibility “hot potato” fell into the lap of the Speaker of the House. If something were to happen to Mike Pence and he couldn’t take over, we’d be in the hands of Paul Ryan…or Nancy Pelosi. Possibly.
No president can just be ousted because this isn’t Cuba. A majority of the people he’s assigned to run the Federal Government must agree his or her time is up.
What’s truly ironic, is that the amendment can be invoked to appoint a vice president. You’d think some of the constitutional lawyers walking around the Bartlet White House would’ve used that, avoiding a situation where the president hands over power to a member of the opposing party. But I digress.
Step 3: The president must formally resign
When the president believes he isn’t built for the job anymore, he must formally declare in writing the discharge of his duties. For the purposes of The West Wing, the Speaker of the House became acting president. President Bartlet can be reinstated the second he signs the formal letter declaring he’s fit for duty.
At this point, there’s gotta be at least one person asking could Trump be reinstated if his administration enacts this amendment.
The answer is nah.
The only reason Bartlet’s situation played out as it did is that he was the one making the call. It’s temporary when the president makes the decision. It’s permanent when the vice president and the cabinet make the decision.
We’ve invoked the amendment six times in our history, but never to actually remove a sitting president. Nixon used it to appoint Gerald Ford as vice president once Spiro Agnew resigned. Ford used it to succeed Nixon when the latter resigned even though he claimed to not be a crook. Those are the dramatic instances.
On a much smaller scale, George H.W. Bush became acting president when Ronald Reagan underwent a colonoscopy, and Dick Cheney was briefly president twice when George W. Bush got his colon cleaned. Apparently, you can’t run the free world while being sedated.
At this point, there’s gotta be at least one person asking could Trump be reinstated if his administration enacts this amendment. The answer is nah.
Removing any president, even Trump, is a thorny business. It’s only been used at times when no one would complain and because it was common sense. Forcefully removing Trump would be different and cause a lot of strife, possibly splitting the country even more than it already is. No, it would definitely split the country more than it already is.
Unlike Bartlet, Trump wouldn’t voluntarily go into that good night. In fact, I’m pretty sure he’d be kicking and screaming. We’d never hear the end of it and our entire political system would be in upheaval.
Maybe that’s but one more reason why The West Wing was a vision of what we’d like our politics and politicians to be. President Bartlet realized he wasn’t in a position to keep the country together and do his job; he was emotionally compromised. He couldn’t do his job while worrying about the safety of his daughter and knew his emotions were getting the better of him. He willingly handed the White House to a man he disagreed with vehemently about almost everything.
I can’t imagine any president over the past 20 years doing anything remotely like that. Least of all this president who seemingly has Mya’s ’98 single on repeat in his head. Actually, I can’t imagine Trump handing over power to someone in his own party, let alone a Democrat. I can hear the Mike Pence petty insults already. But to be honest, they practically write themselves.
“Twenty-Five” was a landmark episode for The West Wing. It marked the last time show creator Aaron Sorkin would be a part of the show and the last episode he would write. No one knew what the future held when President Bartlet stepped down, least of all the cast of NBC’s hit show. As actors and as characters, they were truly in uncharted territory. Sorkin was leaving, along with his second-in-command, and no one was quite sure who would steer the ship going forward. Or even if there would be a ship to steer.
There’s a moment in the episode where the Speaker of the House, played by John Goodman, walks to the Oval Office and meets the White House Senior Staff. They all look like they just saw Satan and he looks, well, he looks like John Goodman. Sensing their unease, he tells them all to “just breathe regular.”
Fat chance, John Goodman. “Twenty-Five” tells me if anything, we should be hyperventilating. Much like those on the show at the time, we’re in a place we’ve never been before as a country. At least not since 1974 and we all remember how that turned out.
Marcus Benjamin is a danger to the public, an alum of American University, St. John’s University, a screenwriter, and has an intense relationship with words. Witness his tomfoolery on Twitter,@AbstractPo3tic.
Please recommend the article if you enjoyed it. Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook, username WeAreStillCrew.
