Believe Trump when he says he wants a third term
The president has repeatedly mulled another stint in the White House. It’s a mistake to think the Constitution would stop him.
FINALLY, all joking and the Constitution aside, President Donald Trump said he hasn’t ruled out running for a third term.
“A lot of people want me to do it,” Trump said in a Sunday-morning (Mar 30) phone call with Meet The Press anchor Kristen Welker. “But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.”
And to anyone who was inclined to dismiss Trump’s comments as an attempt at humour, he offered clarity.
“No, no I’m not joking,” he said. “I’m not joking.”
Also, more clarity.
“There are methods which you could do it.”
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For those who might say this is just an attempt to distract the press from a scandal (Signalgate) or resist becoming a lame duck and that this could never, ever happen in the good old US of A, just stop it. Trump isn’t playing chess, he isn’t just trolling. He has looked around and seen institutions, from law firms to colleges, caving to him. He has looked around and seen that he, as well as his Cabinet officials, are immune to the usual laws of politics, and can seemingly get away with anything.
His comments about a third term should be taken very seriously and quite literally.
Think about this.
Isn’t it much easier to imagine Trump seeking a third term than standing aside and passing the baton to Vice-President JD Vance? (More on that later.) Jan 6 (2021) proved that Trump will go to great lengths and break longstanding norms to maintain power. It also proved that the broader GOP is willing to sand the rough edges off of anything Trump does, even if they are initially appalled.
Trump has a clear legal and political strategy: soften the ground for what’s possible through repetition; try everything; and look to the Supreme Court to make it possible. This includes firing thousands of federal workers, ending birthright citizenship, and using the Alien Enemies Act to deport immigrants.
Add seeking a third term to that list. Trump has brought up the idea of serving beyond two terms many times, dating back to his first term. Shortly after he announced his re-election campaign in 2019, he tweeted out a video meme suggesting he would serve additional terms, beyond what the Constitution allows. During his first term, he also suggested that after serving two terms he would “negotiate” to get a third. Shortly after he was re-elected in 2024, he told House Republicans he might need their help to run a third time. He again brought up seeking a third term after his inauguration in 2025.
The 22nd Amendment plainly states: No person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice. It was enacted in 1951, after president Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected four times in a row. Expect to hear some sort of word salad about how if it’s not a consecutive eight years, maybe it doesn’t count. What Trump and his allies will really mean is that the Constitution doesn’t really count, something Trump himself suggested when he posted in February that “he who saves his Country does not violate any Law”. When pressed, Republicans will hem and haw and be dismissive. They will say Trump is just trolling the media, and they will be widening the Overton window ever so slightly.
More than two months into Trump’s second term, members of the political press are playing the old style of politics where Congress, the Constitution, polls, stock markets and, quite frankly, they themselves still matter. Remember the claims that Trump couldn’t shutter the Department of Education because he would have to get approval from Congress? Well, Trump just said he would fire half of the department, which will render it all but shuttered.
Remember how it was thought that Doge (Department of Government Efficiency) would simply run like other efforts to trim the government rolls, maybe do a review and issue a report with recommendations? Now Elon Musk, Trump’s top donor, has slashed departments indiscriminately, all the while lining up first for government contracts and boxing out his competition.
Remember how the courts were going to be the bulwark against illegal executive orders and Doge overreach? We’re now seeing that litigation takes time, and while those cases play out in court, fired government workers are finding other jobs and the Trump administration is ploughing ahead.
Time after time, the guardrails have not guarded democracy.
One method that has been floated is that Vice-President JD Vance would run for the nomination in 2028 with Trump as his running mate. Once elected, Vance would step down and Trump would be elevated to the White House. Trump said Sunday that’s one method, “but there are others, too”.
Conservatives have worked diligently to create the current political environment. Surely, there is work being done to ensure that work continues beyond Trump – he will turn 79 in June. But it’s no longer hard to imagine some of that work going towards figuring out how to put Trump on the ballot in enough states in 2028 to make him a third-term president.
Trump’s second term has already revealed uncomfortable political truths: Democracy is fragile and in America anything can happen.
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