President-elect Donald Trump recently joked with House Republicans and said: "I suspect I won't be running again, unless you do something. Unless you say, 'He's so good, we have to just figure it out.'"
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), who served as lead counsel for one of Trump's impeachments, fretted: "It's the same thing now (about a third term). This is how Donald Trump operates. He floats it, he normalizes it, and then it just becomes part of the common parlance."
Memo to Goldman: Even if Trump were serious, there is a bit of a speed bump. It's called the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution. It says, "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice." So, if you're keeping score, Trump has maxed out. And given that Trump insists he actually won in 2020, he's really maxed out.
Of course, the Constitution can be amended, something that occurs on average every 10 years. Congress could start the process. But an amendment requires a two-thirds vote in the House, where Republicans have a majority by just a few seats, and in the Senate, where Republicans hold a 53-47 lead. Then three-fourths of the states would have to approve. The second way to amend the Constitution requires two-thirds of state legislatures to call for a convention to propose amendments. This has never happened. But, hey, fascists find a way.
To completely, totally and forever shut down a Trump third term, Goldman proposed a resolution stipulating the 22nd Amendment "applies to two terms in the aggregate as President of the United States" and it "applies to President-elect Trump." It's hard to get clearer than the clear language of the 22nd Amendment. But fascists find a way.
Trump's joke scared the pants off Vanity Fair. In a piece headlined "There's Nothing Funny About Trump's Third-Term 'Joke,'" it wrote, "So when he muses about staying in office beyond the second term he won last week, there is no reason to take it as anything but an admission of his actual aspirations."
As for "actual aspirations," in December 2000, The Guardian wrote a piece called "(Bill) Clinton Wants Third Term in Office: Constitution ban is outdated, president says in nostalgic interview." It wrote, "The US constitution should be changed to allow a president to serve more than two terms, Bill Clinton has told Rolling Stone magazine."
In November 2020, former President Barack Obama told late-night comic Stephen Colbert: "People would ask me, 'Knowing what you know now, do you wish you had a third term?' And I used to say, 'You know what? If I could make an arrangement where I had a stand-in, a front man or front woman ... I'd be fine with that.'"
Former President Richard Nixon, after his 1972 landslide reelection and before the Watergate scandal, talked about repealing the 22nd Amendment. The New York Times, in a Nov. 29, 1987, article headlined "Reagan Wants End of Two-Term Limit," wrote: "President Reagan says that after leaving office he 'would like to start a movement' to repeal the constitutional amendment that limits Presidents to two terms."
Two-term presidents tend to fantasize about a third term. Ex-presidents are living longer and longer. Former President Jimmy Carter is 100. He left office in 1981, like Trump in 2021, as a one-termer. Carter, like Trump, could have tried again and, if he won, he could've squeezed in a few more terms given his longevity. No wonder Trump's riff about a third term sent Democrats hiding under the bed.
But Democrats should not be so shortsighted. If Trump pulls this off, then Obama, who is 15 years younger than Trump, could run again. Bill Clinton, two months younger than Trump, could, too. Clinton's probably itching to get the band back together and hit the campaign trail one more time. Besides, what's the Democratic alternative? Kamala Harris?
Goldman, on the other hand, certainly raises a legitimate fear. Given Trump's stamina, drive and energy, he could keep getting elected and stack up enough terms to run with Barron, becoming the first father-son ticket.
You know, like LeBron and Bronny.
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