Contempt as Trump claims he can run for third term: 'This is what dictators do'

[Eugene]

Contempt as Trump claims he can run for third term: ‘This is what dictators do’ (The Guardian)

US president receives bipartisan criticism after saying there are ‘methods’ he could defy constitution to seek third term

Donald Trump’s suggestion that there are “methods” by which he could run for a third term as US president has been met with scorn – but also warnings that he could seriously attempt it, despite being explicitly barred from doing so by the US constitution.

“The biggest mistake of the last eight years is that we somehow failed to give credibility to Donald Trump’s whims and impulses, but we know it’s true,” David Jolly, a former Republican member of Congress, told MSNBC.

“January 6 was a perfect example. If he says he’s not ruling it out, then he’s not ruling it out, and we should consider it a constitutional threat.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/31/trump-running-third-term-reactions

[lamp_shade]

1. Ofercrissake. As usual, he's just looking for a reaction.

[dalton99a]

2. "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time"

People always underestimate this asshole

[Kid Berwyn]

3. Trial Balloons is how the unstable moron operates.

Pretty soon, his corrupt Supreme Court will not only rule that Putin's puppet is eligible to run, but has already won and there's nothing democracy can do about it.

[GreenWave]

4. Hopefully France punishes Trumpster LePen today.

And we 1,000 X that for Dumpster.

[MiHale]

5. If he can run...we get Obama to run...

Fair?

[EYESORE 9001]

6. I read that some gooper congresscritter

Proposed legislation to allow something be who had served two non consecutive terms to run again. Cherrypick much?

[EarlG]

7. There is indeed a method by which Trump could run for a third term

He could get the Constitution amended. It requires the approval of two-thirds of both Houses of Congress, plus it has to be ratified by three-fourths of the states. And there you have it: Trump's third term.

Of course he's not going to bother trying to do that, because it would be too much work and it likely wouldn't happen anyway. And that, in a nutshell, is what his first two months has been all about -- much of what his regime has done so far COULD have been done legally -- but because it would have been too much work, and he likely wouldn't have the votes in Congress, he's simply ignoring the rule of law, doing whatever the hell he wants, and challenging people to stop him.

Expect the same when it comes to running for a third term -- although I'm not sure how he plans to get on the ballot, since it will be up to the individual states to decide if he can run or not. Obviously Colorado tried to keep him off in 2020 and that was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court, but that was because they were arguing over the definition of "insurrectionist." To give Trump a third term, SCOTUS will somehow have to explain why this doesn't apply to him:

"No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once."

I'm sure they'll rise to the occasion...