You have probably heard quite a bit about these two terms; Impeachment and the 25th Amendment. As of recently, these two terms have been thrown around a lot in politics. They are being used to describe the removal of President Donald Trump from office. While some have been using these terms interchangeably, they actually have a significant amount of differences. So today, I’ll be telling you what those differences are, how each of them work, and which one is more likely to be used. 

Let’s start with impeachment. This is something Donald Trump is not a stranger to, as congress tried to impeach him in 2019. To put it simply, impeachment is when a government official is charged with a high crime, that leads to their removal in office. A big difference between this and the 25th Amendment, is that this process isn’t limited to just the President, as any government official can be impeached. It starts with the House of Representatives, voting on if the official in question deserves to be impeached. If the majority says yes, the vote will move on to the Senate, where a two-thirds vote will remove the official from office. 

Then there is  the 25th Amendment, and while it is similar, it is a different process entirely. For one, the 25th Amendment is exclusive for the President, and can’t be performed on other government officials. And unlike impeachment, this amendment requires the approval of congress and the Vice President, as they both need to agree that the current President is unfit for their position. Like before, a two-thirds majority is needed to remove the President from office. However, another big difference between this and impeachment, is that in impeachment, the Senate can also vote to prevent the President from running for office ever again.

So with that all in mind, it’s a safe bet to say that impeachment would be invoked rather than the 25th Amendment. While both remove President Trump from office, the 25th Amendment doesn’t prevent him from running again in the future, while impeachment can do just that. In fact, as of the time I’m making this article, Impeachment has already started, as Vice President Mike Pence didn’t approve of the 25th Amendment. The vote in the House of Representatives already concluded, as the Senate are said to meet January 19th to discuss the removal of power. Even after President Elect Joe Biden would be inaugurated, the Impeachment process could still continue, as preventing Trump from running again for office could be worth the wait.