During the past two administrations, there has been ample discussion of vice presidents invoking the 25th Amendment to remove the sitting president, be it former President Donald Trump or current President Joe Biden, for purportedly being incapable of fulfilling the duties of their office.

Never has the 25th Amendment been flipped to apply to vice presidents, at least until now, as Trump recently said he was open to the idea of "modifying" the constitutional provision to allow for the removal of a sitting VP, according to Truthout.

Trump's suggestion came as part of a broader rhetorical attack against Vice President Kamala Harris over her alleged coverup of President Biden's increasingly obvious cognitive decline and possible inability to effectively perform the job of the presidency.

Trump says 25th Amendment should apply to vice presidents too

Newsweek reported that last Saturday, during a campaign rally in Wisconsin, former President Trump reiterated his accusation that VP Harris, his current political rival, covered up and lied to the American people about how President Biden, his former political opponent, was no longer mentally fit to serve in the Oval Office.

"I will support modifying the 25th Amendment to make clear that if a vice president lies or engages in a conspiracy to cover up the incapacity of the president of the United States, if you do that with a cover-up of the president of the United States, it's grounds for impeachment immediately and removal from office, because that's what they did," Trump told the crowd of his supporters.

"That's what they did. You know, think of it, if he didn't go to that debate, he'd still be running, still be running," he added about Biden ending his re-election bid under pressure from fellow Democrats and the media following his disastrous debate performance in late June.

The 25th Amendment and the process to alter it

The U.S. Constitution's 25th Amendment, fully adopted in 1965, includes a section that authorizes the vice president, in conjunction with a majority of the Cabinet, to seize power and serve as the acting president after notifying Congress that the sitting president is "unable to discharge the powers and duties" of the office.

The ousted president can take power back if they notify Congress that "no inability exists," but if there is a dispute between the president and their VP and Cabinet, then Congress has the opportunity to intervene within a certain time frame and either restore the president to power or, with a two-thirds majority vote, leave the VP in place as the acting president.

Nowhere within that amendment does it say anything about removing a vice president from office -- though that task could be achieved through the normal impeachment process, as Trump alluded to in his rally remarks.

If Trump's idea of modifying the 25th Amendment to also apply to vice presidents were to be accomplished, it would likely be a rather tall order, as it would require an additional amendment to the Constitution, which was purposefully designed to be an arduous process that requires broad consensus, per Newsweek.

First, a formal proposal would need to be drawn up and approved by two-thirds of both the House and Senate or by two-thirds of the states in a constitutional convention. Then, if passed, the proposed amendment would need to be ratified by three-fourths of the states before it could be formally added to the Constitution.

25th Amendment shouldn't be weaponized for political purposes

Perhaps lost amid all of the talk in recent years about the 25th Amendment, according to an op-ed from American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow John Fortier, is the fact that it was only ever intended to be used in rare circumstances and was supposed to "remain above politics" and not be weaponized for partisan purposes.

Yet, he said, "During the Trump presidency, some Democrats called for using an obscure provision of the amendment to essentially remove President Trump from office. Similar calls were made by Republicans during the Biden administration -- the 25th Amendment option was raised to highlight the age and alleged incapacity of President Biden."

"Very recently, former President Trump called for changing the 25th Amendment to prevent a rogue vice president from essentially initiating a coup against the president," he added. "While this not-very-well-fleshed-out proposal is not practical, as it would require a constitutional amendment, it does, however, point to the issue that political partisans have started talking about the 25th Amendment as a political weapon to threaten to remove a president of the opposing party."