Donald Trump’s madcap threat to destroy Iran’s “whole civilisation” sent shudders down spines in Washington. Armageddon has been averted for now, but the chatter about invoking the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution to remove the US President on grounds of mental instability continues.

This isn’t just a parlour game. Military leaders and cabinet members will have been privately examining their consciences and asking themselves just how far they would cross their own moral boundaries for Trump. Democrats have been publicly clamouring for the removal of the Mad King.

But I never thought I would hear Alex Jones of Infowars, a conspiracy theorist and one of the original Make America Great Again stars, accuse Trump of behaving like a “supervillain” and ask, “How do we 25th amendment his ass?”

This law allows power to be transferred to the Vice President if a sitting President is physically or mentally incapable of performing his job. Let’s be clear. To topple Trump in the present circumstances would involve a coup. There is no way he would transfer power to JD Vance voluntarily.

But there is a war raging inside the Maga movement that could ultimately bring Trump down. Right-wing influencers with the biggest bullhorns – Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Megyn Kelly and Jones – are treating the President like a spent force and jostling for a future without him.

Recognising this threat, Trump is striving mightily against being perceived as a lame duck. Instead of letting these attacks bounce off him, he retaliated with a furious tirade on Truth Social, blasting the gang of four for being a bunch of has-beens and losers.

“They have one thing in common, Low IQs,” Trump raged. “They’re NUT JOBS, TROUBLEMAKERS, and will say anything necessary for some ‘free’ and cheap publicity.”

That’s probably the sanest thing Trump has said for a while. A peeved Jones shot back: “The new Trump is a rotting husk of the old Trump,” claiming the President had changed, not him. But what Jones really meant is that the US public has changed its mind about Trump.

If nothing else, these four “nut jobs” know their audiences. Together, they have a huge digital reach and over 10 million YouTube subscribers reaching deep into the Magasphere. If they think they’ll get more clicks by dumping on Trump than by sucking up to him, they are making a rational commercial decision.

The latest YouGov/Economist opinion poll shows 56 per cent of voters disapprove of Trump’s performance compared to 37 per cent who approve. But you don’t need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. Trump is isolated in the Oval Office as well as in the Magasphere.

Cabinet members and military advisers are running away from the Iran debacle as fast as they can. A riveting article in the New York Times about the origins of the war was full of granular detail from those with a seat at the top table when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Trump to act.

CIA head John Ratcliffe allegedly called the Israeli assessment “farcical”. Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly added, “It’s bullsh**.” Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine raised the potential risks. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles had concerns. Vance, his would-be successor, was presented as a far-sighted war “sceptic”.

And now – enter the mysterious Melania Trump, with a none-too-clear rationale for reviving the Jeffrey Epstein scandal her husband tried so hard to bury. Et tu, Melania? The President claimed to be blindsided by the US First Lady’s decision to stand behind a podium and declare, “The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today.”

It’s worth remembering that Trump can be at his best with his back to the wall. The Democrats should beware of endorsing calls to invoke the 25th Amendment against Trump, instead of beating him at the ballot box. They are a reminder of the destructive “lawfare” efforts to criminalise him, which only powered his comeback.

Vance has been dispatched to Pakistan to lead the precarious peace talks with Iran. He will be under no illusions that Trump will pin the blame on him should they fail. If anything proves that Trump is still mentally sharp, it is his shrewd attempt to dump difficult problems on his ambitious Vice-President.

There is no realistic chance of invoking the 25th Amendment against Trump. But the ground is being prepared for a post-Trump future, which conceivably could come earlier than the end of his term in 2028.

Jones has spotted an opening – what he calls Trump’s “failing health”. There was a viral rumour over Easter weekend that the President was seriously unwell and being treated at Walter Reed hospital. It wasn’t true. But it is obvious he isn’t in peak health. He is almost 80, suffers from chronic venous insufficiency, which causes swelling and bruising, and, as mentioned, there is increased speculation about his cognitive abilities.

Jones asked a guest on his show, lawyer Robert Barnes, how Trump could be removed without the 25th Amendment. “Tackle Trump, let him pretend he’s President and publicly report that he’s going through a health issue, and Vance take over,” Barnes replied. “It literally needs to be something like that. It’s that bad.”

Over the top? Yes. There won’t be any conspiratorial nonsense about pretending he’s still President. But the state of Trump’s health may ultimately serve as America’s most likely off-ramp from a dangerously off-the-rails Commander-in-Chief.

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