US should remove Trump from power after attack on Capitol - Archbishop

The attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters has been unanimously condemned by international leaders.(Photo: Unsplash/Joshua Sukoff)

The Archbishop of Wales has said the US should seriously consider invoking the 25th Amendment against Donald Trump after Wednesday's attack on the Capitol. 

The 25th Amendment of the US Constitution permits the vice president and a "majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide" to declare the president "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office". 

Archbishop John Davies said that the events of recent days had shown Trump to be "possessed of a shameful self-image which, he evidently believes, permits him to ignore the democratic processes of his country and the democratically expressed will of its people". 

This behaviour, he said, had led to the "mayhem" at the Capitol on Wednesday.

"His country and its people deserved and deserve better," he said. 

"Even though the Trump presidency is in its dying days, and despite the fact that one nation should not seek to interfere in the processes of another, I would hope that those in a position to do so would seriously consider invoking the 25th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and end it immediately.

"This would be no empty gesture, because no politician has a right to determine that they are unaccountable for their behaviour. When such behaviour is so gross, obvious and anti-democratic, it should not be allowed to pass."

Trump is due to leave the White House in under two weeks and has promised a "smooth transfer of power".

Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, and Chuck Schumer, the soon-to-be Senate majority leader, have both called for the 25th Amendment to be invoked, but Vice President Mike Pence is reported to have ruled this out. 

House Democrats were to meet at 5pm GMT on Friday to discuss the possibility of impeachment.