The most GOP conspicuous loss? Integrity!

By Donald A. Collins | 17 February 2026
Church and State

(Credit: YouTube / screengrab)

What I miss finding in the avalanche of Trump and GOP’s misbehaviours is the total absence of truth-telling on any issue they treat. Prime example: The major cover-up on the release of the Epstein files, which is clear in my mind without any legal trial to convict Trump and all of the people who flew down to that island or mixed with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago. We now know that Trump’s name appears so often in these files that any other conclusion would be stupid.

Since most Americans watched the Minneapolis performance of ICE or Trump’s foreign adventures or personal attacks on political enemies, and on and on and on, Americans can more and more see what a loser this pathetic villainous traitor has always been.

Trump’s approval ratings have dropped to 36%, with projections suggesting a potential further decline.

In my previous article, I suggested using the 25th Amendment to remove Trump, but it is clear that this process is not easily carried out.

There is no doubt about my main point: Trump has never demonstrated integrity. Since this has never been a concern for him, he has consistently gathered associates who reflect that same characteristic he values.

Integrity, integrity, integrity has left the GOP whether you blame his spineless congressional his greedy ones, or simply his stupid citizens locked in the MAGA bubble!

Of course you could reasonably say that the entire GOP is locked in a bubble of stupid homage to a deranged leader asking his lemmings to Race over the Cliff as they help him continue to destroy are democracy.

I acknowledge my naivete for thinking the 25th amendment could apply here, though it does not—at least not yet—even as concerns about Trump’s health continue to grow. You can read below the complexity of obtaining the ousting of a president using the 25th amendment.

As I read this article below, I realized that I probably should recycle my civics readings which of course are no longer widely taught in our elementary and high schools as they should be.

What is the required number of cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment? Does it have to be a unanimous decision?

The short answer is that it only takes a simple majority. But it’s nowhere near as straightforward as that might make it seem.

The 25th Amendment, ratified in February 1967, is something of a catch-all, addressing four separate aspects of presidential succession. Though the four parts of the text are related, they answer four separate questions.

Section 1:

In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

We saw part of the amendment put into effect in August 1974, when President Nixon resigned and Vice President for became president.

Section 2:

Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

Gerald Ford was affected by this section twice. First, in October 1973, when Vice President Agnew resigned, President Nixon nominated Ford to replace him, and Congress approved the nomination. And then, less than a year later, in August 1974, when Nixon resigned, Ford became president, and Ford nominated and Congress approved Nelson Rockefeller to become vice president.

Section 3:

Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

The section has been invoked several times, by both President Reagan and President George W. Bush. They invoked it because they were having minor surgery that required anesthesia, and in every case, they re-assumed the presidency within a couple of hours.

And then there’s Section 4. I won’t cite it in its entirety because it’s too long for this forum. The first part states:

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Note the deliberate use of the phrase “Acting President.” This stipulates than if the procedures are followed to determine that the president cannot, for whatever reason, perform his duties, the vice president “acts” as president. It doesn’t say how long that shall go one, nor what happens to the president who as temporarily been relieved of duties.

The second part of Section 4 describes what happens next:

The actual president submits notification to the bodies mentioned above that he is able to perform his duties, and he becomes president again.

Unless, with four days, the vice president (i.e. acting president) re-informs those bodies that the president is still unable to perform his duties.

Then, Congress decides the issue, and it determines, withing 21 days, by a vote requiring a two-thirds majority of both houses of Congress, whether the president shall resume office, or if the vice president shall continue to serve as acting president.

Though the amendment was intended to answer questions, close loopholes, and clarify processes, it doesn’t answer questions about what happens after what I just described above. Does the vice president remain acting president through the remainder of the term? Are the powers, rights, and duties of the acting president the same as a president? What happens to the president who has been “succeeded” by the vice president under these circumstances? The text carefully does no use the word “removed,” nor does it state what that person’s status is.

As previously mentioned, the Democrats may have a chance to gain control of both chambers of Congress. This could open the possibility of attempting to remove Trump from office, with a Senate trial following. However, the likelihood of convincing 67 Republican senators to vote for such an action is slim. Nonetheless, continued presentation of evidence—such as Jack Smith’s compelling findings—might keep the issue alive and could potentially lead to post-presidency legal proceedings against Trump, especially if it can be demonstrated that his family accumulated significant wealth by leveraging his position, despite the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling.

Former US Navy officer, banker and venture capitalist, Donald A. Collins, a free lance writer living in Los Angeles, CA, has spent over 60 years working for women’s reproductive health as a board member and/or officer of numerous family planning organizations including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Family Health International and Ipas. Yale under graduate, NYU MBA. He is the author of 15 books: “From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013”, “Trump Becoming Macbeth: Will our democracy survive?”, “We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?”, “What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?”, “Vote”, “Can Homo Sapiens Survive?”, “Will Choice and Democracy Win?”, “Can Our U.S. Survive 8 Plus Billion of Us”, “Economic Growth: A Cancer on all Earthly Life”, “On the Precipice of Political Disaster in 2024”, “Democracy at Red State Risk”, “Does Trump Go to Jail or to The Oval Office?”, “Trump: Pardon or Punish?: The Nixon Precedence Was Not A Trump Coup Denied!”, “Common Sense: When will Trump be Impeached, Indicted, and Exited?”, “Trump–unrestrained dangerous liar!” and “Our Ethnic Mix May Save Us!”.

Is Trump facing a GOP rebellion? – The President’s Path podcast, BBC World Service

Hillary Clinton accuses Trump administration of Epstein files ‘cover-up’ in BBC interview | BBC News

Trump Attorney General Pam Bondi Gets Hammered on Epstein & MAGA Coalition Starting to Crack

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1 COMMENT

  1. Excellent post. Thanks for clarifying the participants of the upper administration who are involved in invoking the 25th amendment. I had thought it was just the cabinet in which case it would never happen with the current panel of sycophants.

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