Texas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett sent a formal letter to Vice President JD Vance on April 7 demanding that he and President Trump’s Cabinet invoke Section Four of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment and declare the president unfit to carry out the duties of his office. The letter, sharp in language and sweeping in its accusations, called Trump “deranged” and alleged he is “likely suffering from dementia,” while warning that his conduct has pushed the United States toward what Crockett described as the potential commission of “one of the largest war crimes in modern history.”
“The country and the Constitution remain in jeopardy with each passing day Donald Trump is President of the United States,” Crockett wrote. She accused Republican leadership of enabling the president’s actions and called their collective support what she described as “among America’s greatest scandals.” The letter went further, asserting that Trump’s behaviour may be “criminal in nature” and arguing that recent legal rulings on presidential immunity have emboldened what she characterised as unlawful conduct.
The call for the 25th Amendment followed Crockett’s loss in the Texas Democratic Senate primary to state Representative James Talarico, a defeat that she reached after weeks of a nationally watched campaign and will exit Congress when her current term ends in January 2027.
The loss means the coming months represent her final legislative stretch, and she has made clear she intends to use them aggressively. “I’m in the seat until January and have no plans of taking my foot off the gas on behalf of the American people,” Crockett wrote on X in a separate exchange.
That exchange was prompted by a Trump post on Truth Social on April 2 that referenced legendary American frontiersman Davy Crockett, Trump writing that the historical figure “would be proud of the legacy that he began long ago, and especially Jasmine’s Great Success as a Politician from the Great State of Texas” — a comment dripping with sarcasm in the immediate aftermath of her primary defeat.
Crockett responded with characteristic directness, suggesting the president’s fixation on her may be connected to her pointed questioning of former Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was fired by Trump on April 2 amid bipartisan criticism of her performance in office. “I wonder if this has anything to do with my questioning of Pam Bondi????!!!” she posted.
The 25th Amendment demand is unlikely to produce any concrete outcome. Section Four requires the Vice President and a majority of principal officers of the executive departments to transmit written declaration to Congress that the president is unable to discharge his duties — a mechanism that has never been used in American history and for which Vance and the Cabinet have shown no appetite.
The political value of Crockett’s letter is therefore primarily symbolic, framing the Democratic opposition’s position on the Iran war and Trump’s conduct in the starkest possible terms for the record.
Crockett has been among the most prominent and combative Democratic voices on the House Oversight Committee throughout the current session, earning national recognition for sharp exchanges with Republican colleagues and Trump administration witnesses. Her Senate primary loss to Talarico — who ran to her left on several issues, including the question of US military aid to Israel — reflected the fractures within the Texas Democratic coalition and the particular challenge facing candidates in a state where Democrats have not won statewide office since the 1990s. She will remain in Congress through the end of 2026.
