President Donald Trump’s enemies will call him a dictator no matter what he does. So he might as well use their hysteria to serve his broader purposes.
In a Saturday phone interview with establishment propagandist Kristen Welker of NBC News, Trump did not rule out the possibility of pursuing legal methods that would allow him to seek a third term in the 2028 presidential election.
“A lot of people want me to do it,” the president said. “But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.”
When asked if he felt the same way those “people” did, Trump replied, “I like working.”
Moreover, he tried to convey earnestness.
“I’m not joking,” he added. “But I’m not — it is far too early to think about it.”
As for how he planned to get around the Constitution’s 22nd Amendment, which declares in plain language that “[n]o person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice,” the president cryptically referred to “methods,” including the possibility of Vice President J.D. Vance securing the presidency in 2028 and then passing it to Trump, presumably Vance’s 2028 running mate.
Trump also mentioned other possible methods, but refused to specify.
Of course, all of this barely passes the laugh test, though not for the reason readers might think.
Should Trump run for a third term in some form or fashion?
For one thing, not even the nation’s worst liberal jurist would fail to recognize the 22nd Amendment’s obvious meaning. Those liberals routinely ignore the First and Second Amendments, as well as the Constitution’s text in general. But it takes that kind of judicial tyrant to rule that the Constitution does not mean what it states. And no such tyrant — liberals all — would ever rule in Trump’s favor.
Moreover, as a practical matter, the president will turn 82 on June 14, 2028. Thus, assuming a Vance victory followed by a resignation, Trump would finish his third term at age 86. As much vigor as the president now exhibits, it would break one’s heart to see him badly decline in office.
Thus, why would he even mention such a thing to Welker? Surely the astute reader already suspects the same thing I suspected immediately.
Indeed, Trump has plans, but those plans have nothing to do with seeking a third term. Still, he needs his enemies to believe that they do, and then to object with their usual shrillness.
What plans, you might ask?
Well, Trump did not return to the White House merely to fix the economy or even to close the border. He has done, or will do, those things, of course, but he has a much greater task.
The president has repeatedly pledged to smash the deep state. That must happen, or else victory in the 2024 election means nothing. The next Democrat or establishment Republican to win the presidency would simply return to business as usual.
To prevent that, Trump must deprive the establishment of every mechanism it has hitherto used to fleece the American people. That includes preventing outside forces from corrupting the nation’s elected representatives, many of whom stay in office for decades. As a result, both individuals and interests grow entrenched. Wealth flows from ordinary citizens to the well-connected in and around Washington, D.C.
And that means Americans must impose term limits on Congress.
At some point, I believe, the president will make the case very publicly and strenuously for a constitutional amendment that will restrict members of Congress to a limited number of terms in office. He will cite limits on his own re-election. And he will use his enemies’ own arguments to say, in effect, that if the Constitution can limit a president’s terms ,then it should do likewise for legislators.
At present, of course, the federal judiciary poses the greatest obstacle to restoring constitutional self-government.
Eventually, however, the president must take his republic-saving quest directly to the halls of Congress.
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