House Democrats moved this week to create a commission under the 25th Amendment to evaluate whether President Trump remains fit for office. The legislation arrived as Trump's rhetoric has grown increasingly unmoored, lurching between threats of genocide and social media posts depicting himself as Jesus Christ. While passage in a Republican-controlled Congress remains unlikely, the effort signals growing congressional concern about the president's mental state.
But a deeper problem may be emerging: Trump's officials appear to be operating in a reality that diverges sharply from consensus. The question Democrats might reasonably ask is whether a cognitive fitness test should apply more broadly across the administration.
Gregg Phillips, a senior Federal Emergency Management Agency official, claims he once involuntarily teleported to a Waffle House in Rome, Georgia. He has also promoted election fraud conspiracy theories and made crude remarks about President Biden. Yet the teleportation claim stands out for its sheer implausibility.
In podcast remarks uncovered by CNN last month, Phillips described the experience with evident confusion. "Teleporting is no fun," he said. "You don't really know what you're doing. You don't really understand it, it's scary, but yet it's so real." The New York Times sent reporters to interview staff and customers at three Waffle House locations in Rome and found no evidence of paranormal visitation.
When questioned, a FEMA spokesperson attributed Phillips's comments to "personal, informal, jovial, and somewhat spiritual discussions made in the context of barely surviving cancer." Phillips himself clarified on Truth Social that he had been undergoing alternative cancer treatments and was heavily medicated. He also claimed the word "teleportation" came from another person in the conversation groping for language, and that more accurate biblical terms would be "translated" or "transported."
The Trump administration has reportedly asked Phillips to stop discussing the matter. Even Trump himself seemed baffled when CNN raised the issue. "What does teleport mean? Was he kidding?" the president asked.
Extraterrestrial concerns run deeper through the administration. Vice President JD Vance recently told conservative commentator Benny Johnson on The Benny Show podcast that he believes aliens are "demons." Vance acknowledged he hasn't devoted much time to the subject but expressed theories about celestial beings behaving strangely toward humans.
Republican lawmakers have joined the push for disclosure. Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee called on Trump to release government files on aliens. "Peel back the layers of that onion, let America decide if we can handle it," Burchett said. The congressman has previously stated that aliens possess technology capable of turning humans into "a charcoal briquette."
Former congressman Matt Gaetz, Trump's short-lived choice for attorney general, claimed during a recent podcast appearance that he had been briefed while in office on a secret alien-human hybrid breeding program.
Medical claims within the administration have grown equally unconventional. During an appearance on his son Donald Trump Jr.'s podcast, surgeon Mehmet Oz revealed that Trump believes Diet Coke functions as a cancer treatment because it kills grass when poured on it, therefore logically must destroy cancer cells inside the human body. Trump Jr. responded that his father "maybe is on to something," or perhaps is on something.
This aligns with the president's well-documented preference for fast food and unconventional health views. His newly appointed health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has advocated positions widely rejected by mainstream medicine, including claims that WiFi causes "leaky brain" and chemicals in water supplies can alter children's gender.
Author James Rodriguez: "If the 25th Amendment won't work, it may be time to hope the aliens have better ideas about how to run a country."
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