Conservative Voices Push 25th Amendment Against Trump As Iran Looms

Donald Trump has been provocative and unapologetic, often using shock to drive the conversation and unsettle opponents. This piece looks at how deliberate provocation, misfires like a controversial AI image, fights with religious leaders, and bold threats over Iran combine to keep him in the headlines. It also examines the predictable political backlash — calls for removal, mental-fitness theater, and partisan grandstanding — and why many conservatives view these tactics as calculated, not chaotic. Finally, it touches on related scandals on the Hill that further distract and inflame the media cycle.

Donald Trump is nothing if not impulsive, but his impulsiveness usually comes with an aim; he knows how to push attention toward what he wants debated. Sometimes that means going far over the line on purpose, and sometimes it’s genuinely rash. Either way, the media storm he creates rarely dissipates on its own and that suits his strategy just fine.

He recently posted an AI image of himself in a Christlike pose that many found offensive and he deleted it within 12 hours, a rare backtrack for him. Critics piled on from across the conservative and religious spectrum, but the fallout made the point: the controversy took over the news. Isabel Brown, a Catholic podcaster with the Daily Wire and a Trump supporter: “This post is, frankly, disgusting and unacceptable, but also a profound misreading of the American people experiencing a true and beautiful revival of faith in Christ in the midst of our broken culture.”

Voices that otherwise support him offered sharp rebukes. Riley Gaines, a conservative podcaster and anti-trans activist who has spoken at Trump rallies: “I cannot understand why he’d post this…Two things are true…”a little humility would serve him well” and “God shall not be mocked.” Megan Basham, a conservative Protestant Christian writer: “He needs to take this down immediately and ask for forgiveness from the American people and then from God.” Those lines stung, yet the story amplified his message more than silencing him would have.

Religious leaders weighed in too, making the backlash appear broad and serious. Rev. James Martin, editor-at-large of the Catholic magazine America, told CNN: “I don’t know too many doctors that have glowing hands. That’s the most Jesus-looking picture I think I could imagine.” Even friendly allies tried to soften the damage; JD Vance told a national anchor: “I think the president was posting a joke. And, of course, he took it down because he recognized that a lot of people weren’t understanding his humor in that case.”

These controversies don’t occur in isolation. They followed a public spat with the Pope and came amid a heated foreign policy moment over Iran. The president’s rhetoric has been maximalist, and his stark language grabbed attention in ways that routine statements rarely do. For example, he warned about strikes on Iran with a line that shocked many observers: “A whole civilization will die” tonight, never to be brought back again.

That kind of language feeds calls from opponents for extreme measures, including talk of the 25th Amendment and commissions to evaluate fitness for office. Fifty Democrats filed legislation to create just such a commission, an obvious political stunt that Republicans will dismiss. Critics want action; Republicans see procedural impossibilities and partisan theater, so the proposals that get headlines rarely go anywhere.

Accusations about age and mental fitness swirl whenever a president behaves differently from his critics’ expectations. The New York Times summed up the debate this way: “President Trump’s erratic behavior and extreme comments in recent days and weeks have turbocharged the crazy-like-a-fox-or-just-plain-crazy debate that has followed him on the national political stage for a decade. ‘The White House rejected such assessments, saying that Mr. Trump is sharp and keeping his opponents on edge. But the president’s eruptions have raised questions about America’s leadership in a time of war. While the country has had presidents whose capacity came under question before, most recently the octogenarian Joseph R. Biden Jr. as he aged demonstrably before the public’s eyes, never in modern times has the stability of a president been so publicly and forensically debated — and with such profound consequences.'”

From a Republican vantage, many of the dementia claims are overblown and politically motivated. He fields reporters’ questions at length and uses controversy to change the media agenda, which has long been his playbook. Liz Peek defended the approach bluntly: “Trump knows exactly what he is doing,” adding “Trump will continue to use maximalist (and sometimes outrageous) military and diplomatic pressure in his campaign to rid the Middle East of Iran’s near 50-year campaign of terror.”

Still, the pace of incendiary statements and high-stakes threats risks real strategic cost. Critics argue he launched confrontations without a clear exit strategy, forcing allies and opponents alike to debate not only the merits but the optics and long-term consequences. Supporters say the unpredictability rattles adversaries and creates leverage, and that’s been the case repeatedly across his political career.

Meanwhile, partisan chaos on Capitol Hill and criminal allegations against other lawmakers divert attention from the president’s policy goals and create daily fodder for the press. That swirl of scandals and sensationalism fuels a 24/7 news cycle that rewards the most provocative actors and punishes restraint. For Trump, that has usually been an advantage rather than a handicap.

Footnote: Now that Eric Swalwell has resigned his House seat in the face of near-certain expulsion, after abandoning his campaign for California governor, a new accuser has emerged.

Lonna Drewes accused the California Democrat of rugging and raping her during a Los Angeles news conference yesterday.

Drewes said they met in 2018 when she was a Beverly Hills fashion model and owner of a fashion software company. told reporters she met Swalwell in 2018 while working as a model in Beverly Hills. Drewes said they met two times socially after Swalwell offered to help her with connections.

On the third occasion, Drewes said, “I believe he drugged my drink. “I only had one glass of wine. We were supposed to go to a political event and he said he needed to get paperwork from his hotel room. When I arrived at his hotel room I was already incapacitated and couldn’t move my arms or my body.”

She added: “He raped me and he choked me. And while he was choking me I lost consciousness and I thought I died.”

Now that Swalwell is no longer a congressman, two of his accusers, Ally Sammarco and Annika Albrecht, went on the record with CBS. “He thought he was untouchable,” Samjmammarco said. He acted with total impunity. He never thought that the consequences of his actions would follow him.”

CNN had earlier interviewed one of the accusers but shot her in shadow to conceal her identity.

Also yesterday, Democratic Rep. Tony Gonzales said he would resign his House seat, also in the face of virtually certain expulsion. “There is a season for everything and God has a plan for us all,” he said.

Sexual text messages made public in 2024 made clear that he had an affair with Regina Santos-Aviles while she was working for him.

She killed herself in September by setting herself on fire.