Donald Trump’s own White House officials now discussing 25th Amendment

Thus far Speaker Nancy Pelosi, incoming Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, tons of House Democrats, one House Republican, and two Republican Governors are all publicly calling for Donald Trump’s immediate removal. Last night CBS reported that an unspecified number of Trump cabinet members are discussing the 25th Amendment privately. Now that discussion is apparently expanding.

NBC News is now reporting that Trump’s own “staff-level officials” in the White House have also privately joined the 25th Amendment discussion. These officials won’t get to participate in any 25th Amendment vote. But these are the people who work the most closely with Trump day to day, and so they’re the ones who are in the best position to convince cabinet members that Trump really is unstable enough to require immediate removal.

Meanwhile Mike Pence is still refusing to take phone calls from Democratic leaders, even as Pence’s allies tell the media that he feels betrayed by Trump’s decision to incite a terrorist attack on the Capitol with Pence inside.

But this isn’t about Pence’s feelings. He has a constitutional duty to invoke the 25th Amendment, and the pressure will keep mounting unless and until he does.