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Americans had every reason to know, long before election day in November 2024, that Donald Trump was a deeply flawed candidate for president. After all, it had been widely reported that Trump was a convicted felon, an adjudicated rapist, a confessed sexual abuser, and a serial cheater on his wives. (And yet, some Americans evidently went to the polls and decided electing such a person to run the country would be a good thing. How could anyone, with something besides empty space between their ears, reach such a conclusion?) Now, we are seeing a growing list of signs that Trump is a deeply flawed president -- that he hasn't improved any since his failed first term.
What is the latest evidence that Trump, like many Republicans of the postmodern era, is not capable of governing -- is seemingly not even interested in running a ship of state? It comes via news that Trump is considering ways to serve a third term as president. This is a raging red flag that Trump is not a serious person -- or a serious leader -- because he should know there are no ways he can serve a third term.
Chris Megerian, of the Associated Press (AP), addresses the issue under the headline "Trump says he’s considering ways to serve a third term as president." What "ways" is Trump talking about? Megerian makes it clear they exist only in Trump's delusion-filled brain. From the AP article:
President Donald Trump said Sunday that “I’m not joking” about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends at the beginning of 2029.
“There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News from Mar-a-Lago, his private club.
He elaborated later to reporters on Air Force One from Florida to Washington that “I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term because the other election, the 2020 election was totally rigged.” Trump lost that election to Democrat Joe Biden.
Still, Trump added: “I don’t want to talk about a third term now because no matter how you look at it, we’ve got a long time to go."
Notice that Trump says the 2020 election was "totally rigged," even though he acknowledged last September that he had lost that race "by a whisker." Should Americans expect more than brazen dishonesty from their president? Trump's day dreams of a third term just add to his history of deceit. Megerian continues:
The 22nd Amendment, added to the Constitution in 1951 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected four times in a row, says “no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”
Any attempt to remain in office would be legally suspect, and it is unclear how seriously Trump might pursue the idea. The comments nonetheless were an extraordinary reflection of the desire to maintain power by a president who had violated democratic traditions four years ago when he tried to overturn the election he lost to Biden.
“This is yet another escalation in his clear effort to take over the government and dismantle our democracy,” said a statement from Rep. Daniel Goldman, a New York Democrat who served as lead counsel for Trump’s first impeachment. “If Congressional Republicans believe in the Constitution, they will go on the record opposing Trump’s ambitions for a third term.”
Steve Bannon, a former Trump strategist who runs the right-wing War Room podcast, called for the president to run again during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference last month.
“We want Trump in ’28,” he said.
Kayla Thompson, a 30-year-old former paralegal in Wisconsin, said she would “absolutely” like Trump to serve another term.
“America needs him. America is headed in the right direction and, if he doesn’t do it, we’re probably headed backwards,” said Thompson, who was attending a campaign event Sunday with Elon Musk in Green Bay for a state Supreme Court race. If Steve Bannon and a 30-year-old paralegal say it's OK, that must settle it, right? Not so fast, Megerian writes:
Jeremy Paul, a constitutional law professor at Boston’s Northeastern University, said “there are no credible legal arguments for him to run for a third term.”
NBC’s Kristen Welker asked Trump if one potential avenue to a third term was having Vice President JD Vance run for the top job and “then pass the baton to you.”
“Well, that’s one,” Trump responded. “But there are others too. There are others.”
“Can you tell me another?” Welker asked.
“No,” Trump replied.
Props to Kristen Welker for catching Trump in his web of deceit. Oops! Here is more from AP:
Derek Muller, a professor of election law at Notre Dame, noted that the 12th Amendment, which was ratified in 1804, says “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.”
Muller said that indicates that if Trump is not eligible to run for president again because of the 22nd Amendment, he is not eligible to run for vice president, either.
“I don’t think there’s any ‘one weird trick’ to getting around presidential term limits,” Muller said.
In addition, pursuing a third term would require extraordinary acquiescence by federal and state officials, not to mention the courts and voters themselves.
He suggested that Trump is talking about a third term for political reasons to “show as much strength as possible.”
“A lame-duck president like Donald Trump has every incentive in the world to make it seem like he’s not a lame duck,” he said.
Trump, who would be 82 at the end of his second term, was asked whether he would want to keep serving in “the toughest job in the country” at that point.
“Well, I like working,” the president said.
Trump suggested that Americans would go along with a third term because of his popularity. He falsely claimed to have “the highest poll numbers of any Republican for the last 100 years.”
Gallup data shows President George W. Bush reaching a 90% approval rating after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. His father, President George H.W. Bush, hit 89% following the Gulf War in 1991.
Trump has maxed out at 47% in Gallup data during his second term, despite claiming to be “in the high 70s in many polls, in the real polls.”
Trump has mused before about serving longer than two terms before, generally with jokes to friendly audiences.
“Am I allowed to run again?” he said during a House Republican retreat in January.
Representatives for the congressional leadership — House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York — did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the AP.
My guess is that everyone besides Johnson would respond with guffaws.