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)
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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.
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.
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”?)
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
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 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.
I guess that’s why he’s trying to get into a war.
Oh 100%, this is dictatorial coup 101
I mean the U.S. even held elections during a Civil War, I don’t think fighting overseas is going to change anything.
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.
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
To be clear, I agree with you. I was being hyperbolic about the “rule forever” part because nothing last forever.
However, I think they are drunk enough on their own power to believe they can outlast all of us, and it remains to be seen, in the short term, whether they are right…
Sounds like the movie Civil War.
Life imitates art, and the truth is usually stranger than fiction…
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.
There are not. Fascism has only ever been defeated in two ways: Ballot or Bullet. And wouldn’t you know it, we’re fresh out of Ballots.
Not surprisingly, the constitutionalists and “Biden is too old”
crowdRepublicans are silent.FWIW my issue was never explicitly about Biden’s age but his mental capacity, which had clearly declined (he did have some good days tho.)
Trump’s mental capacity seems to be about the same as it always was (it was always low, but not as bad as Biden on a bad day.)
Not that I’d vote for Trump either way, mind you.
Extremely reasonable concerns, I agree. I wish Biden would have passed the baton early on like he said he was going to. I honestly think that cost the Democrats the election.
But given the choice between a declining Biden surrounded by competent people or Trump surrounded by sycophants, I would choose the former.
Are we talking about the same person? Trumps ramblings are more incoherent than ever. He often forgets words, or uses the wrong word, and then gets confused trying to find the right word. Those are serious signs of dementia related diseases.
Trump can’t even keep a thought in his head for more than 5 minutes which is fortunate because he can’t articulate on any thought past 2 minutes. So ya he’s gonna repeat himself once or twice its simple math. It’s not just that he’s dumb, or senile… he’s also woefully uneducated.
Are we talking about the same person? Trumps ramblings are more incoherent than ever.
Yes, his chaos and nonsense has gotten more aggressive, even stronger in favor of Russia, etc.
Trump rambles about the same as he did in the 2016 election, he was just as incoherent back then, he brain-farted in the middle of a sentence on multiple occasions during his first term and just babbled to try to cover it. None of this is new, none of it has increased sharply and thus become a sudden new concern - he’s the same senile little shithead he’s been since the early 2000s at least. But he still clearly has some capability to speak and act somewhat normally, unlike Biden on that debate stage who looked confused and not all there all of a sudden (and was fine a few days later.)
So if there is decline, and I’m not arguing there isn’t, it’s been going on for a long time. Biden’s was new, bad, and seemed to be accelerating fairly rapidly. I’m not saying Trump is better - I’m about as far from being a Trump supporter as one can be and still be on the same political spectrum - I’m just saying Biden’s mental health was a problem, and pretending that it isn’t is part of why it is.
I watched the Biden, Trump debate, and i did not think Biden was incoherent. Dunno wtf everyone is talking about. He looked old and tired, that’s about it. I swear, every time people say this i feel like its a god damn talking point.
This a prank to force me to remember Finally Beat Medicare? :) no thanks! haha
I don’t think he was incoherent, I think he was lost. It took him some time to figure out what was going on and get around to answering the question, and while he did answer them, he was a space cadet man. Iono if it’s meds or dementia or what, but. But I mean Trump is a fucking mentally deficient clown with a bad case of verbal diarrhea, so neither party were ‘sending us their best’, if you know what I mean. :P
Bro biden had no problem communicating. He had a speach impediment.
I watch most presidential press briefings and only one of the 80 year old presidents is a senile old fool.
Even if Biden has lost his mind, the remaining parts amounted for more knowledge about government and international affairs than trump ever had.
Biden is gone and our problems are just begining, do me a favor and keep his name out of your mouth.
Biden’s brain was leaking out of his head during the presidential debate, arguably the most important night of his ‘24 run. That was way more than a speech impediment, it was dementia on full display. His staffers have already come out and said they knew he was suffering from serious mental decline as early as ‘22. Stop making excuses for the Dems trying to steamroll through an unfit candidate…it was a dumbass strategy and it cost the nation to such a massive extent we may never recover. We should have upheld the democratic process and held a contested primary instead, and Biden’s legacy will be forever tarnished by refusing to do so.
We also watched as trump sucked off a microphone at one of his rallies, but that didn’t seem to affect the outcome of the election, so why does Biden being senile and having dementia even matter?
So because republicans are willing to vote for a piece of shit candidate so should democrats? Fucking lol.
That’s not what I’m saying. I’m just pointing out the contradiction. “Our candidate must be perfect” meanwhile the other guy is fellating microphones on a stage and mocking disabled people.
I agree that democrats need to run a good candidate, but clearly that’s not the most important thing here.
Ok but there’s a large gap between perfect and whatever the fuck you wanna call Joe Biden. Like, Obama was not perfect. Dude was against gay marriage until he changed his mind before his 2nd term. Had he not, he very likely would have lost. But he decided to listen to humans. He was willing to change and ran a campaign for change. Biden ran on “nothing will fundamentally change.” Which… literally no one wants. Theres a lot of reasons democrats have not wanted to vote for the democratic candidate, and thinking like “well trump sucks so it doesn’t matter if ours also sucks.”
He wasn’t even a piece of shit. He had a good cabinet, he improved international relationships, improved domestic issues, he was a fine incumbant, he would have been better pick than trump if he was a zombie.
Because Biden should have never run in the first place, and the contest would have been much different if Trump were facing a competent opponent who was nominated democratically.
I agree, although I should also bring up that your argument was about the Biden vs Trump debate, however we also later watched the Harris vs Trump debate where Harris ultimately wiped the floor with him. My point is that clearly the quality of a candidate doesn’t matter to the majority of voters, and the quality of how they can debate doesn’t matter either.
I think the quality of candidate you’re referring to is quite subjective.
Alternatively, what I’m suggesting is that a democratically nominated (by the voters) candidate would objectively be better positioned to win an election.
Because ‘any reasonable adult’ ain’t gonna fly when you have no idea how much is left or even if it’s still reasonable.
Also Trump is a fucking moron, but I didn’t vote for him, so if you want to know why that didn’t affect the election outcome you’d have to talk to people who did.
Unfit candidate huh. Tell it to the 3 Trillion dollars wiped off the SP500 last week.
What? I’ve heard him talk from a few years ago, he stumbles over his words occasionally, but Biden’s debate performance was not a speech impediment. He was lost, easily distracted, and spoke like he wasn’t all there. And the fact that it comes and goes (he seemed fine just a few days later) suggests this is a mental issue, not a life-long thing. I agree with you though, Biden is still better than Trump (I am about as far from being a Trump supporter as one can possibly be and still be on the same political spectrum), and his cabinet was far better, but pretending that it’s not a problem is part of why it was a problem.
Also you are cordially invited to fuck all the way off with that ‘keep his name out of your mouth’ shit. I’m here to have adult discussions about our situation and how we got into it, if you can’t handle that then you’re welcome to go sit at the kids’ table.
Did you see the entire 4 year presidency so you can compare it to the current one or did you just see the debate bro? You realize he was on TV talking every day for 4 years and fox news captured all the speech blunders. It was not that many.
Did you see anything but the debate bro? be honest? Did you say Genocide Joe and Vote Jill Stien and hand the election to trump? Pretending like biden was a bad president is an opinion reserved for Fox news enjoyers. Biden was not the problem you were. The low information voter. The voter that shows up last minute and sorts through a couple narratives and sends it. Or are you the voter that splits the party in the most important election of our life time. Which one are you bro? You don’t sound like you need to be discussing politics, you need to be studying it.
Sorry, is it suddenly a problem that I judge a candidate by the campaign they run like literally everyone else?
I only bring up the debate because while there had been gaffes and brain-farts before, this was the most he’s spoken at one time in a while and it was real fuckin’ bad, man, and anyone with eyes could see it. I dunno if it was a new problem or an old problem getting worse, but I’m gonna go ahead and guess it’s the second one since his staff has already spoken out about his issues. I’m not saying Biden was a bad president (certainly not compared to either Trump term so far), and he at least had a competent administration around him. I’m saying he was a bad candidate and should not have run again. You know, like he said he wouldn’t.
I look forward to not expecting your vote against trumps 3rd term. Be sure to keep criticizing the dems in the past and not focusing on the authoritarian coup underway!
You can look forward to not having any idea how I vote because I don’t discuss that. Also I definitely will, thanks. Maybe one day you too will be a grown-ass adult who is capable of criticizing multiple things at the same time. Won’t that be fun!
Why are you guys talking about the debate performance? Is that the only time you watched Biden speak? I watch press briefings 24/7. Biden spoke just fine when he was talking to europe. He spoke fine when he talked to the american people.
But ya he couldnt keep up with trump lying his ass off, go figure. AT 10 PM at night. Sure ya bro go off. you guys are totally spitting. Nothing about policy or government just all debate vibes “dId YoU sEe ThE dEbAtE bRo?”
As his staff has said he has good days and bad, which is pretty common with dementia-related illnesses.
Have you ever been around someone with dementia? Have you ever watched them slowly fade away until they can’t even remember their own family members? I have. I remember those ‘maybe they’re not all there’ days, and it was almost worse that they were interspersed with days where they seemed lively and all together and on top of the world, because you know it won’t last, because those days will get fewer and further between until they just don’t come at all.
Would you elect my grandmother who thinks she’s still living under the Hoover administration? I wouldn’t.
Yes I lost my grandma to dementia, so I’m a bit offended at you confusing a speach impediment and old age with actual dementia.
I must have clinical dementia too at 35 from smoking to much weed. I forget shit all the time from some light ADD.
Anyway, reality called. You got Dementia Don as president. He’s half as lucid and 3 times as dangerous, and he’s sorrounded by incompetent Yes-men.
I’m done arguing with you. Bidens corpse would be a better president than Trump. Just down vote me and leave me alone.
I’m sorry for your loss. Mine isn’t gone yet, but it won’t be long.
But I wouldn’t vote for your grandmother either.
The “Biden is too old” crowd isn’t silent, but there’s very little to say about Biden’s age now and there are better reason to oppose Trump than his age.
See above reply. I should not have, mistakenly, implied democrats earnestly concerned about Bidens age are silent now. My point was to illustrate Republican hypocrisy.
Republicans are not and have never been honest. At least since Regan. This includes Republican voters.
Biden is too old” crowd are silent.
I haven’t witnessed the people who said that go silent. They changed topics that there were cats and dogs being eaten in Springfield Ohio, topics that JD Vance “couch couch couch”, topics that eggs are expensive, topics that Canada is bad, topics that Greenland needs to be taken over by the USA, topics that Ukraine started the war against Russia, they are anything but silent, they are commenting all over every media platform they can find free time to utilize.
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I perhaps should have clarified that I meant Republicans who said they opposed Biden because of his age, who are suddenly okay with someone in his 80s running.
I certainly did not mean Democrats earnestly voicing concern of Bidens age.
They’re not upset you appeared to criticize a Democrat. They’re juvenilly incensed that you dared push back against the propaganda they fully believe. With the most feint of defense of a Democrat. Check their history. Dingdong don’t do nuance or maturity. You’re fine.
You know its funny @Eldritch@lemmy.world
I was pulling receipts the other day of yours. You like I should post them here?
Sure go ahead. It won’t disprove anything I said. But that wasn’t the point was it? It was all about deflection and distraction. Because you don’t have a response to it. You know it’s true. And you just proved it. My sins real or imagined won’t change that. Have a nice day😀
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Lies and projection, impressive. As proof I point to your very first post in this thread chain. Go ahead look at your post now back to mine post again, then back to yours. Who’s the juvenile toxic one? Oh BTW you offered no receipts. You made an empty claim without even a link to a single post.
Let me show you how to do it. You are well known for not being able to handle anyone who disagrees with you. No matter how respectfully. Resorting to juvenile tactics and name calling, such as blue maga. In an attempt to discredit the arguments and points of others. Because you cannot put forth any cogent defense of your viewpoints. You shrilly shouted it plenty.
My only stance was that statistically, mathematically, historically, evidentially, and traditionally a Democrat or a Republican would win the presidency. That we should pick our battles and focus on keeping the fascist out. Nothing more nothing less. You were the one running Purity tests attacking the candidates we had. Fantasizing over candidates we didn’t. Focusing on being part of the group that helped keep constant attacks on Democrats in the news and not the fact that their opponent was a literal fascist that would be the end of us. And while Democrats are plenty to blame for their own failures. You factor in as well. I never advocated for any particular candidate.(against plenty) Just to keep the fascist out. But please do point a link to an actual quote of me saying otherwise. Would have if you could have. But you didn’t. Because as I said before, all you have is juvenile emotion and projection.
Oh and I stand by the statement in that image in general. As history has born it out but it doesn’t show what you say it does. Maga blindly things to emotion and ideology over reality. As people like yourself do
Thank you for the clarification.
Most states probably won’t even let him register for presidential election.
Hasn’t the Supreme Court already ruled on this when Colorado tried it? It was pretty clear then that he violated the 14th Amendment. So what’s the 22nd to them this time? The deed will be done.
I believe they commented it was fine for colorado to enforce the 35 yrs old requirement because its clear cut and there’s no process needed to make that determination. The 22nd amendment doesn’t require any determination process, so its unlikely they’ll be able to bar it without letting toddlers run for president
He’ll just threaten to stop all federal monetary transfers to those states and they’ll cave.
Sure but you only need them to bar him long enough to keep him off the ballot. Imo it takes time to cave to monetary pressure.
Well, if chump finds a way to run again, I hope Obama runs too.
Much of the problems we’re facing with rampant executive overreach, supreme courts packed with the worst people, and vulnerabilities in our rights being exploited have been direct products of Obama’s inaction and compromise with Republicans.
He was a great “leader” in that he kept the country and world seemingly stable, but he wasn’t the great president most people think. I would still take 30 Obamas over a half of a single Trump, but we wanna be very careful about idolatry in our political leaders.
I don’t think he’ll run as much as he’ll just still be there when he’s not supposed to be and no one in government will do anything about it.
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Or rather Michelle Obama running for her first term. She is ridiculously popular in polls amongst both democrats and independents. The only downside about her is the fact that she doesn’t want the job, which really just makes her perfect for the job (:
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.
I don’t think we’re in a timeline where we’ll be so lucky.
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.
Ronald Reagan had full-blown Alzheimer’s disease through his entire second term and yet Republicans kept control of the White House through 1992. Dementia is no obstacle when the guy at the top is a show pony anyway.
😭 😢 😔
Hoping for divine intervention hasn’t done wonders so far
His roya family thankfully has more smart americans. You guys are save over there.
There’s not even going to be an election. He’s just going to declare himself president, because literally who would stop him?
if he and the republicans really want to play with fire, they will try to run trump a third time.
everyone is watching.
Yeah, that’s all anyone is doing.
Just heard an interview on BBC radio this morning with an American explaining that there are avenues for Trump to do this by abusing the line of succession. It sounds like they want to appoint him as Speaker of the House and then have the president and vice president abdicate.
You’re getting too technical.
The real simple solution is to…
Step 1: Say you’re running for president
Step 2: Win primary unopposed
Step 3: Appear on national ballot unopposed
Step 4: Announce that you have won
Step 5: Anyone who claims you didn’t win is in violation of the Abolish Woke Act of 2027 and subject to indefinite detention
Yeah, there was already established law to prevent him from running for president. It got ignored. He ran anyway. He won anyway. He became president anyway.
Any of these legal mechanisms only work if they are upheld.
He ran anyway. He won anyway. He became president anyway.
Under a Liberal President, a Liberal AG, and Liberal Courts no less.
Any of these legal mechanisms only work if they are upheld.
Even after '16, Democrats doggedly insisted he would be easy to beat. I think that, more than anything, is what cleared his path. Liberals simply could not believe he was popular enough to win.
Because the liberals had their heads stuck in the sand because they weren’t paying attention.
Except Bernie and AOC. They knew, and nobody listened.
Hey now. I’m pretty sure they listened. That’s why they turned on The Squad in the '22 and '24 elections, spending hundreds of millions at the primary level to force them out. Cori Bush and Jamal Bowman lost their jobs in the last cycle, precisely because reactionaries in the (D) party were listening. Quite a few others were gated out of the system on similar grounds.
Merrick Garland. That AG’s name is Merrick Garland. It should not be forgot. Merrick Garland. He sat on his ass just like Mitch McConnell thinking things would magically work themselves out without needing to do their jobs and lo and behold things did not magically work themselves out.
What law are you taking about?
Technically an amendment to the constitution, the third section of the 14th amendment, that nobody who has engaged or helped an insurrection can hold office in the government or military (except with a 2/3 majority of congress).
Yeah, you’re not wrong, that’s another path. Full blown authoritarianism.
If the Republicans manage to get someone other than Trump in office for the first time in over 20 years I really don’t see them choosing to hand power back to him.
W was a fluke in both 2000 (Florida shenanigans) and 2004 (9/11). It could be argued that they haven’t legitimately gotten someone other than Trump in office since Bush Sr. in 1988.
Reminds me of when there was a Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev who I think was just a puppet until Putin decided there was no point in pretending.
Yes, exactly. They used Medvedev as an example.
B.Y.O.B from System of a Down playing in my head on loop rn
Who up getting they lies fed from the tablecloth?
… duh?
