Imagine this: Trump wins the 2024 election, but soon after, the GOP decides he’s more trouble than he’s worth. He’s ranting and raving – ketchup is no longer enough; he’s upgraded to mayonnaise (because it’s white, don’t you know). I mean, this isn’t a stretch; he’s exhausting.

Could the GOP use the 25th Amendment to remove him and install JD Vance as president? While it sounds like a political thriller, this idea isn’t entirely out of the question. Here’s a breakdown of how it could happen and how Trump’s legal troubles fit into the equation.

The conservative strategy is firmly grounded in winning the long game.

Republicans have repeatedly proven their commitment to the long game, often working behind the scenes for years, or even decades, to reshape American governance. Two organizations at the forefront of this strategy are the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation, both of which have played instrumental roles in developing conservative legal, political, and social frameworks. Their long-term strategies illustrate their meticulous planning and deep commitment to achieving their goals.

The Heritage Foundation has been pulling the strings for nearly fifty years.

The Heritage Foundation has also played a critical role in shaping conservative policy across multiple administrations. Its influence began in the Reagan era when it provided a detailed set of policy recommendations known as the Mandate for Leadership. This guide was the blueprint for much of Reagan’s conservative agenda, including economic policies like deregulation and tax cuts. Fast-forward to today, and Project 2025, also called a Mandate for Leadership, follows that tradition by preparing for the next conservative president with even more detailed recommendations.

They’ve created media echo chambers to amplify their message.

The conservative media ecosystem, often supported by think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, has shaped public opinion. Channels like Fox News, OAN, Newsmax, Epoch Times, and social media platforms like X, Truth Social, Rumble, and Telegraph amplify conservative values, creating a feedback loop that energizes the base and focuses on long-term goals. This alignment between media, legal, and political strategies ensures that conservative movements maintain momentum, even in the face of setbacks.

Mitch McConnell has successfully packed the courts with Federalist Society members.

The Federalist Society’s long-term efforts to “pack” the courts with conservative judges are foundational to their strategy. By ensuring that conservative judges dominate the judiciary, they create an environment where laws on issues like gun control, healthcare, and voting rights will likely be interpreted through a conservative lens. This guarantees long-term influence, as many federal judges serve for life. The judiciary becomes a tool for implementing conservative values long after a president leaves office.

They worked for decades to get Roe v. Wade overturned.

The overturning of Roe v. Wade was no overnight victory. The Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization, spent decades grooming and promoting judges who would reinterpret the Constitution through a conservative lens. They created a pipeline of legal professionals—judges, attorneys, and scholars—who would go on to fill judicial roles, including on the Supreme Court. The 2016 election of Donald Trump provided a rare opportunity for the organization to help select three Supreme Court justices, all of whom played a critical role in overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022.

The Federalist Society’s influence reaches beyond the Supreme Court. The organization has actively worked to place conservative judges throughout the federal judiciary, including the appellate and district courts, securing conservative legal interpretations for years to come.

They spent years writing Project 2025, deciding how to manifest a white America.

Project 2025 is the Heritage Foundation’s most ambitious project to date. With a 1,000-page blueprint for restructuring the federal government, the initiative represents a monumental long-term vision to shift power toward conservative goals. This plan includes dismantling agencies like the Department of Education, reversing environmental protections, and installing political appointees across the federal bureaucracy to ensure alignment with conservative values.

What makes Project 2025 particularly striking is its scale and foresight. Heritage is vetting and training thousands of potential political appointees to be ready to step into roles from day one of a conservative presidency. This demonstrates a reactive approach and an intensely proactive, decades-long commitment to shifting how the federal government operates.

Does their long game include installing JD Vance as President if Trump wins?

The Federalist Society, Heritage Foundation, and Project 2025 demonstrate a long-term strategy designed to consolidate conservative power at every level of government. Could using the 25th Amendment to replace Trump with JD Vance be part of this long game? It’s possible.

While Trump has been a useful figurehead, his erratic behavior may no longer align with these organizations’ carefully curated vision. Installing someone like Vance, who is deeply connected to these long-term goals, could ensure their vision of American governance continues.

While this might seem like a wild hypothesis, the Federalist Society and Heritage Foundation’s planning history and the massive scale of Project 2025 suggest that nothing is off the table. Their goal is not just to win the next election—it’s to shape America for generations.

The 25th Amendment: A Pathway to Removal

The 25th Amendment was introduced to handle situations where a president cannot perform the office’s duties. The relevant part here is Section 4, which allows the vice president and a majority of the cabinet to declare the president unfit. If they do that, the vice president immediately becomes acting president.

Here’s how it works:

• The vice president and more than half of the cabinet sign a statement declaring the president unable to fulfill their duties.
• The vice president takes over as acting president immediately.
• If the president contests the declaration, Congress has 21 days to decide. A two-thirds vote in the House and Senate is needed to permanently remove the president.

The public has no direct role in this process; it is entirely in the hands of the vice president, the cabinet, and Congress.

Is JD Vance Project 2025’s Calculated Choice?

JD Vance is deeply entwined with Project 2025, a far-reaching and highly controversial plan by the Heritage Foundation to reshape the federal government in the next Republican administration. His role in Project 2025 is more than just a passive endorsement—Vance has actively contributed to the ideological framework and rhetoric behind the project, serving as a bridge between Trumpism and the Heritage Foundation’s ultra-conservative goals.

JD Vance’s long and deep ties to Project 2025

Vance’s involvement with Project 2025 dates back to introducing a Heritage Foundation report in 2017. The report promoted a highly conservative agenda, which included extreme positions on issues like banning abortion nationwide and criticizing fertility treatments like IVF. This report has become a component of the broader vision that Project 2025 aims to implement, and Vance’s early contributions have cemented his ties to its architects.

Vance’s role extends to more recent activities. He wrote the foreword to a forthcoming book by Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation and one of the leading figures behind Project 2025. This book outlines a vision for what Roberts calls a “Second American Revolution,” proposing dismantling core federal institutions like the Department of Education and the Justice Department. Vance’s alignment with these ideas positions him as a central figure in the project.

Their vision for control and power is vast and deep.

At its core, Project 2025 seeks to place as much of the federal government as possible under the president’s direct control, allowing a future Republican administration to bypass institutional checks and implement sweeping changes quickly. The plan includes proposals to:

• Fire large segments of the federal workforce.
• Reduce the influence of independent agencies.
• Ban “woke propaganda” in schools.
• Curtail reproductive rights, making abortion “unthinkable” in the U.S.

Vance has long been a supporter of these ultra-conservative ideas. His 2017 Heritage Foundation report also included criticisms of modern reproductive technologies, lashing out against IVF for allowing women to delay childbirth. This rhetoric aligns perfectly with the Heritage Foundation’s vision of a traditional, controlled society where conservative norms rigidly define family and gender roles.

They believe Vance is the ideal successor to Trump.

In the eyes of the Heritage Foundation and other Project 2025 supporters, Vance represents an ideal successor to Donald Trump—someone who can carry out their goals without the chaos that Trump often brings. Vance’s combination of populism, cultural conservatism, and deep connections to Heritage make him the perfect figure to lead the movement after Trump. The fact that Vance is already integrated into Heritage’s long-term strategy only strengthens this possibility.

Vance’s ability to navigate between the extreme conservatism of the Heritage Foundation and his public persona as an outsider politician makes him a valuable asset. Project 2025, with its broad and aggressive agenda, needs someone like Vance, who can publicly support the dismantling of federal agencies while maintaining a connection with Trump’s base. His political future appears to be tied to the success of this project and its overarching vision for reshaping America.

Vance’s extensive connections to the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025 suggest he is not merely a bystander in the conservative movement. He is an active player, contributing to the ideological and practical framework of one of modern U.S. politics’ most ambitious conservative agendas. If Trump is sidelined or removed from office, Vance could easily step in as the figurehead for this movement, leading the charge to implement Project 2025’s far-right vision of America.

While Trump may have started as the face of this movement, his unpredictability could make him a liability. In contrast, Vance’s deep connections to the Heritage Foundation make him a more stable, manageable figure who can carry out the conservative agenda.

And they may have the opportunity sooner and more quickly than anyone imagined.

JD Vance will Step in When Trump is Jailed

If he wins, Trump faces four major criminal cases, potentially destabilizing his presidency. These include:

Classified Documents Case: There are allegations of mishandling sensitive documents after leaving office. This case involves violations of the Espionage Act and could lead to serious jail time.

Georgia Election Interference: Trump faces racketeering charges in Georgia for trying to overturn the 2020 election. This charge alone carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Stormy Daniels Hush Money Case: Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records related to a payment made to keep the adult film actress quiet about an alleged affair.

January 6 Conspiracy: Trump is charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and obstructing an official proceeding related to the 2020 election.

If Trump were sentenced to jail while in office, it would trigger unprecedented legal and political challenges. The 25th Amendment could transfer power. If Trump were seen as unfit due to legal troubles, the GOP could move to install Vance.

Thanks for the Conspiracy, Could This Really Happen?

So, conservative leadership can come for Trump on two sides;

1. They declare he’s batshit crazy, and they put him out. This is likely to have blowback among his supporters, which could get messy. I don’t think this is their first choice.
2. He’s sentenced for a crime (the much easier path), and they must uphold the Constitution and remove him because having a jailed President is a bridge too far.

Once he’s incarcerated, here’s how it works:

Republican Agreement: As vice president, JD Vance must agree that Trump is unfit. Most of Trump’s cabinet would also need to sign off. This would be super easy, as the plan is already in motion, and the vice president is Judas.

Congressional Approval: If Trump contests the move, Congress must remove him with a two-thirds majority in both chambers. This wouldn’t be difficult given the Heritage Foundation’s base of support in Congress.

Democratic Opposition: Democrats are unlikely to support any effort to replace Trump with Vance, but they wouldn’t have enough votes to stop the process if Republicans control the House and Senate.

We Need to Spread the Word and Remind Dems to Get Out and Vote

The ugly truth is Trump is more likely to die in office than be removed. Jailing him isn’t off the table, and if that happens, we’ll see things move quickly to get JD in power. This all seems complicated and nefarious, but that’s where we are. Thankfully, Kamala has captured the imagination of healthy Americans and is heading in the right direction.

There’s no going back, people. Forward.