Republican President Donald Trump said on Sunday he was not joking about seeking a third presidential term, which is barred by the U.S. Constitution, but that it was too early to think about doing so.
Trump, who took office on January 20 for his second, non-consecutive White House term, has made vague allusions to seeking a third one but addressed it directly on Sunday in a telephone interview with NBC News.
“No, I’m not joking. I’m not joking,” Trump said, but “it is far too early to think about it.”
“There are, there are methods which you could do it, as you know,” he said. He declined to elaborate on any specific methods.
“There are, there are methods which you could do it, as you know,”
Those methods are:
Serving as VP, followed by ascension - The 12th Amendment says no one ineligible to be president can be VP, but the 22nd Amendment only bars election to a third term, not holding office. Trump could potentially be Vance’s (or someone else’s) VP, then that President resigns, making Trump president for a third term without being elected. This is legally untested and would be widely challenged. It doesn’t seem like a route Trump would take.
Repealing the 22nd Amendment - This requires the proposal and ratification of a new amendment. This new amendment must be passed by a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress, or by a constitutional convention called by two-thirds of state legislatures, followed by ratification from three-fourths of the states. This is an unlikely path for Trump to take. Even with massive cheating, he would never get the numbers in his favor.
Ignoring the 22nd Amendment - AKA the “what the fuck you gonna do” method, which the Trump regime has employed with great success in lots of other areas. This is almost certainly what he means.
Any other method to remain president, such as declaring martial law, declaring a national emergency, using the Insurrection Act, etc, would basically be a military coup that would spark a civil war and Balkanize the US.
Tl:dr; those methods are lying and cheating
until it’s actually time for the next election, all of the third term bullshit is functionally serving only to distract from signalgate and dismantling the courts/gov etc. do not lose focus. (edit: typo fix)
He’s the oldest president the States has ever had, hopefully he’ll die before his term is over.
Trump running for a third term is basically the plot of Civil War (2024).
If you wanna read how prescient that movie really was, here’s Matt Zoller Seitz’s 4 star review of it.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/civil-war-movie-review-2024
Trump says shit all day like a fire hose just to spread terror and keep everyone muddied. But he’s old and will die sooner than later. The question is if MAGA manages to continue his style.
The Paranoid Style in American Politics was published in 1964. They’ve been using it to great success for the past century, why stop now?
Sooner hopefully
We know he is not joking.
He has zero sense of humour: an inherent inability to recognize or invoke it.
He has zero sense of humour: an inherent inability to recognize or invoke it.
There is a humor-like mocking of watching human beings suffer at the hands of government and business systems, “human tears”, “liberal tears”, “Ukraine tears”, values of winning and defeating humanism with systems of power. Donald Trump is very motivated and works many hours to socially arrange this domination and damage over human persons that don’t please his ego.
That’s called sadism
Most psychopaths don’t have a sense of humor. They can imitate what they think is considered having one but they don’t actually have one.
He doesn’t lie about what he wants to do.
He lies about his accomplishments.
It’s been like this since his first term. He’s not lying about invading Greenland or punishing Canada into being the 51st state. He absolutely wants to. Assuming (hopefully) that both these endeavors never materialize, he will claim that these threats accomplished some other goal that was made up on the spot. Which will be a lie.
The strategy is really simple, and I don’t know why it isn’t obvious to everyone. The Republican party will simply refuse to run a candidate in 2028. They will claim that the country is under hostile occupation by Marxists who are attempting to destroy the United States from within and Trump will just refuse to leave office after the mid-terms (if we even make it that far before he declares war & martial law).
They don’t need to cancel, manipulate, or legally challenge anything. At that point, it doesn’t fucking matter what happens with the election because there is no legal mechanism to enforce the removal of the regime. They are going to dare the courts, the police, and the military to try and forcibly remove them, which we all know will not happen. Then just rule by fiat forever.
The End.
I guess that’s why he’s trying to get into a war.
I mean the U.S. even held elections during a Civil War, I don’t think fighting overseas is going to change anything.
Oh 100%, this is dictatorial coup 101
Literally the farthest the conspiracy theories went in 2012 is where we’re headed. Martial law, false flags, posse comitatus, seizing guns.
“Every accusation is an admission” and whatnot…
They’ll probably do something more stupid than that, like replacing him with one of his sons with the promise that daddy Trump will keep running everything regardless
Perhaps. I think it is much more likely that Thiel & Musk attempt to wait Trump’s death out and then install Vance, which will ultimately be the crescendo that causes large scale civil unrest because everybody fucking hates him.
I still have some hope that if there is an overwhelming support for democrats in the midterms, crisis might be averted. It will have to be overwhelming support, because the GOP are going to play every dirty trick possible to cancel elections, jail candidates, etc.
If that happens, impeachment and removal actually becomes possible. And, even if he isn’t impeached, a democrat controlled legislature could reassert their power and take his away. After all, these “executive orders” he keeps issuing are nothing more than memos from a boss to his subordinates about how he wants an agency to be run. They don’t have the force of laws, laws are exclusively within the authority of the legislature.
OTOH, I think the US is a profoundly sick country, and despite everything Trump still have a huge base of support, so a massive, overwhelming election for democrats is just about impossible.
Then just rule by fiat forever. The End.
I don’t think it actually ends that way, but I think you’re right about them aiming for it
I mean, literally nobody on either side thought he was.
The only thing keeping most people quiet is the idea that Trump is temporary. This will not bode well for stability.
Trump may be temporary , but his puppetmasters aren’t.
No one votes for someone to be a president for 4 years thinking it’s just temporary.
By temporary and quiet, I think the previous poster means: The reason why there has not been more resistance or assassination attempts is that everone expects Trump to die from uninflicted causes soon enough. It’s not worth sacrificing your own life to see it happen sooner than later.
The entire world is a powder keg where everyone is hoping that the fuse goes out before it explodes. That is why nobody is stopping Trump. This includes the people in GOP who know fully well that they’re on the wrong path. You can tell because they’ve stopped blowing air on the fuse. Except for Vance and Elon. Those idiots want the world to explode.
Waiting it out is still a bad solution, because it will enable more to follow his example.
The reason why there has not been more resistance or assassination attempts is that everone expects Trump to die from uninflicted causes soon enough
There’s still a pretty good chance that eventually someone who Trump/DOGE causes to lose their job will have a “going postal” response.
Especially if that person has other stressors in their life that have already put them on “I have nothing to live for anymore” edge. (Remember the guy in the movie “Falling Down”?)
We’ve all become complacent (incl Canadians). Few are willing to die, get injured, be fired or end up in jail in El Salvador because they were in the fight ‘too early’.
By the time America wakes up to the need for battle Project 2025 will be (almost?) completed and it will be too late to change course.
If Trump runs for a third term, Obama should too.
Nah, that just legitimizes it for no real benefit.
They don’t care about legitimacy, they brew their own at home. Though I’m not too keen on Drone Strikes McGee coming back.
I’m okay trading legitimacy for a tangible gain, but there is none.
Yeah. The method involves suspending the constitution.
He needs to be driven out of office, like now.
it’s already done for, the us government that is. I don’t believe we can come back from this, it’s calvinball from here on. rules don’t apply anymore, it’s just vibes and whims of a ketamine fueled nazi and his geriatric anger sycophant.
I don’t believe we can come back from this
It can, but that would require a huge number if Americans putting in a lot more effort than they seem to care to do.
I think his age and poor health will come into play before the end of 2026 if not before the end of this year. Once he kicks the bucket, the clown committee will not be able to keep it together. That’s my prediction.
Added to that: the dems will make no meaningful move to capitalize on the moment of advantage when bad orange man is dead and republicans fall into disarray.
Edit: am i just wishful thinking? Maybe, but you guys and your cold water can’t extinguish my hope.
If I’m wrong, then the only alternative is to shut down this idiot circus by other means. We must resist with everything we have, and never let go of our revolutionary optimism.
I dunno man, been hearing about the walls caving in on this too stupid to work regime since 2016…it hasn’t happened yet. Don’t underestimate them.
Trumps father lived until his 90s and had dementia iirc. Trump still has 10+ years left. He might not be functioning well rn bht I expect him to still remain president for years to come.
He’s proven that he does not care about court orders or rules of law, so I doubt he’d be against ripping up the constitution. Not an American so forgive me if I seem ignorant on this, but I hope that there’s failsafes against him getting a third term no matter what he does.
