The prospect of smashing imagined limits on his power gives him an obvious thrill.
Donald Trump’s interest in seeking an unconstitutional third term as president, like many of his most dangerous or illegal ideas, began as a joke. Trump would muse on the stump that he deserved an extra term because he was robbed of his first (by Robert Mueller’s investigation) or his second (by imagined vote fraud in 2020) without quite clarifying his intent. But in an interview with NBC News this weekend, and then in remarks on Air Force One, Trump said he was completely serious about at least exploring the notion.
“A lot of people want me to do it,” he told NBC, adding, “I’m not joking.” When he was asked if the method he envisioned was to have J. D. Vance run at the top of the ticket, and then pass the baton to Trump, he said, “That’s one.” Later, on Air Force One, reporters asked him if he intended to stay on beyond the end of his current term. “I’m not looking at that,” he replied, “but I’ll tell you, I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term because the other election, the 2020 election, was totally rigged, so it’s actually sort of a fourth term.” When a reporter mentioned the Constitution’s prohibition, Trump brushed it off. “I don’t even want to talk about it,” he said. “I’m just telling you I have had more people saying, please run again. We have a long way to go before we even think about that, but I’ve had a lot of people.” In Trump’s mind, the timing is an impediment to declaring for a third term—it’s too early—but the Constitution is not.
One question is, does Trump seriously mean this? Perhaps not. Trump has a long-standing habit of answering reporters’ questions about future actions in the most open-ended way, refusing to commit to any specific course of action, which means he often refuses to rule out even the most outrageous things. This can give ammunition to his political opponents, such as when he said he would “look at” cuts to Medicare and Social Security. But it is also a way to “flood the zone with shit,” as Steve Bannon put it, by proposing an endless stream of wild ideas and reducing the shock effect of any of them.
And Trump admires dictators, and enjoys the power that comes with serving as president. Having concluded that his first term failed because his enemies in the “deep state” and the independent media stopped him, he is now carrying out an elaborate set of schemes to sideline, control, and intimidate them. To concede that he will leave office in 2029 would reduce the atmosphere of menace he has cultivated. Why forfeit the power of another term, or at least the threat of one?
Another question is whether we should take this threat seriously. The Constitution is clear that he cannot run for a third term as president, and most scholars agree that running as a vice president, and then having the elected president step down, is not a valid loophole.
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