Gov. Pritzker Calls for Trump’s Removal from Office Under 25th Amendment

Chicago, IL – Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker made his first public call for invoking the 25th Amendment to remove President Donald Trump from office on Wednesday, October 1, 2025, accusing the 79-year-old leader of dementia and comparing his tactics to Russian President Vladimir Putin after Trump suggested during a September 30, speech at Marine Corps Base Quantico that cities like Chicago should serve as “training grounds for our military” to combat the “enemy within.”

Pritzker, speaking at a City Colleges event in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, said, “It appears that Donald Trump not only has dementia set in, but he’s copying tactics of Vladimir Putin. Sending troops into cities, thinking that that’s some sort of proving ground for war, or that indeed there’s some sort of internal war going on in the United States is just, frankly, inane and I’m concerned for his health.”

He added, “There is something genuinely wrong with this man, and the 25th Amendment ought to be invoked,” drawing applause from attendees including Mayor Brandon Johnson, who called Trump “unstable and unhinged.”

Pritzker’s remarks, his first explicit 25th Amendment invocation, came hours after Trump’s 72-minute address to over 800 military leaders at Quantico, Virginia, where he proposed using “dangerous” Democratic-run cities as training grounds for troops, specifically naming Chicago as a “big city with an incompetent governor” and Portland as a “war zone.”

Trump said, “I told Pete [Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth], we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military, National Guard but military. Because we’re going into Chicago very soon,” per video footage from AP News. He warned of a “war from within” and called on the Pentagon to “handle” the “enemy from within … before it gets out of control.”

The speech, the largest gathering of senior military brass since 1945, featured Hegseth slamming “fat generals” and announcing 10 directives to end “woke” culture, including “male-level” fitness standards and banning beards.

Trump boasted of renaming the Gulf of Mexico and Department of Defense, promising pay raises amid the October 1 government shutdown, which he blamed on Democrats for enabling “illegal aliens” to get “massive health care.” The shutdown, the 11th under Trump, furloughed 800,000 workers and halted services.

Pritzker, at the event with Johnson, received a DHS memo about deploying 100 troops to protect ICE operations in Illinois. Retired Maj. Gen. Richard Hayes, former Illinois National Guard adjutant general, said the administration could activate the Guard without Pritzker’s consent. Pritzker vowed to fight any deployment, calling it “invasion.”

READ:White House Insiders Convinced Trump Is Unfit to Lead: Whistleblower

Pritzker’s call echoed Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who posted “25TH AMENDMENT!” in all caps on X on September 30, after the Quantico speech. Swalwell’s post read, “25TH AMENDMENT!” amid calls for Trump’s removal. An anonymous U.S. defense official told The Intercept on October 1, “This is truly disturbing. He is clearly unwell even for Trump,” raising 25th Amendment concerns.

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich published a September 30, editorial in The Guardian titled “Dementia President: Could It Be That Trump Has Truly Lost His Mind?,” arguing Trump shows “growing signs of dementia,” citing a deleted Truth Social post promoting an AI-generated video of magical healing beds, and his July deployment of troops to Portland after confusing old Fox News footage of 2020 riots for current events.

Reich noted Trump’s family history of dementia, age 79, and “unhinged” rants, writing, “Trump is showing growing signs of dementia. He’s increasingly unhinged… He could well be going nuts.”

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The 25th Amendment allows the vice president and Cabinet majority to declare the president “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” transferring power to VP JD Vance. Democrats urged its use after January 6, 2021, but Pence refused, leading to impeachment.

Pritzker’s call may galvanize Democrats, but invoking the 25th requires Vance and Cabinet support, unlikely amid loyalty. Reich’s editorial fuels media scrutiny, with The New York Times reporting on October 2 Trump’s family dementia history.