Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, called Tuesday for President Trump to be removed from office — citing his attempt to impose a 20% toll on the Strait of Hormuz, the fatal shooting of a second immigrant by ICE agents in less than a week, and an upcoming Thursday night speech on election interference that Smith described as part of an authoritarian takeover of the government.
“It is time for Donald Trump to be removed from office,” Smith said in a video posted to X. “I don’t say that lightly, but Republicans — either in Congress, in the Cabinet — something has to be done.”
“He is jeopardizing citizens’ lives, he is jeopardizing global stability, and it is all so unhinged, it is almost impossible to watch,” Smith said. “We have to make the case that Donald Trump has completely lost it. Not only is he pushing an authoritarian takeover of our country, but we have to question his sanity.”
The Hormuz Toll That Lasted 24 Hours
Smith’s call for removal came the morning after Trump announced on Truth Social that the United States would henceforth be “THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT” and would charge a 20% fee on all cargo transiting the waterway. Trump reversed course Tuesday morning after Gulf leaders called him, saying they would rather make massive investment deals with the U.S. than pay the fee, per his Tuesday Truth Social post dropping the toll.
Smith called the toll plan “completely impossible, not something that we’re capable of doing” and “illegal,” noting that freedom of navigation in international waterways is bedrock international law — a position the U.S. government itself has long held. The United States has consistently upheld the principle of freedom of navigation under customary international law and the State Department’s longstanding freedom of the seas policy, which states that all nations enjoy the right of transit passage through international straits used for international navigation.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said in late June — just before Trump’s announcement — that “no country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway. That’s existing international law.” Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi immediately seized on the reversal, writing on X that “POTUS is absolutely right. Whoever provides secure and safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz should be compensated. 20% is of course too much. We will be fair.” Trump’s own White House Iran Agreement release from June explicitly stated the U.S. position was that the Strait must be open to all vessels without fees or restrictions.
A Second ICE Killing in Less Than a Week
Smith also pointed to the fatal ICE shooting of Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian father of a 3-year-old daughter, in Biddeford, Maine on Monday morning — the second such killing in less than a week following the death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston on July 7. Guerrero was not the target of the warrant agents were attempting to execute, according to Sen. Angus King’s official statement.
DHS said in a statement that the ICE officer fired “fearing for public safety” as Guerrero “attempted to flee the scene,” according to the official DHS statement on the incident. Republican Sen. Susan Collins called for a “full and impartial investigation” and confirmed the FBI is investigating, per her official Senate press release. Maine Gov. Janet Mills said “this has to end” in an official statement from the Governor’s office.
The killing came less than a week after the ICE shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas on July 7. Rep. Sylvia Garcia and Rep. Christian Menefee both issued official congressional statements calling for a full and transparent investigation into the Houston shooting. The two incidents together — both involving men who were not the primary targets of ICE enforcement operations — have generated the most sustained public pressure on the administration’s immigration enforcement posture since Trump’s second term began.
Smith’s Call and What It Would Require
Smith said he does not love impeachment as a strategy — noting he voted to impeach Trump twice and that “neither time did it work out particularly well” — and instead urged Republicans to invoke the 25th Amendment through the Cabinet or use congressional pressure to stop what he described as dangerous and irrational presidential conduct. “Republicans, speak up. Stop this madness. Someone needs to protect our country, and we can’t do that until Donald Trump is out as president,” Smith said.
Smith’s call for removal marked an escalation from his previous positions, which have focused on War Powers Resolution challenges and demands for oversight hearings into the Iran war. In February, Smith was among the first House members to introduce a War Powers Resolution demanding the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iran, citing the lack of congressional authorization for Operation Epic Fury, per his official House press release. He has also sent formal letters to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth demanding answers on civilian casualties and the legal basis for targeting civilian infrastructure, per his official press releases.
Removal of a sitting president requires either a two-thirds Senate vote following impeachment by the House, or invocation of the 25th Amendment by the vice president and a majority of Cabinet officers — thresholds that would require substantial Republican participation. No Republican member of Congress or Cabinet official has publicly called for Trump’s removal. Trump teased on Truth Social that he will deliver a major Thursday night address on election interference, which Smith referenced as further evidence of the authoritarian trajectory he described in his Tuesday video.