Donald Trump can’t help speculating about serving a third term as president—even as he claims “[i]t’s not something that I’m looking to do. And I think it would be a very hard thing to do.”
The president made the comments to The Atlantic in a new interview published Monday, laughing about the idea. He said, “That would be a big shattering, wouldn’t it? Well, maybe I’m just trying to shatter.”
In a startling sign, the Trump Organization has started selling “Trump 2028” hats for $50 each, and the president said last month that he was “not joking” about running for a third term. Such a move would violate the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, and would require a two-thirds majority vote in Congress and a three-fourths majority of state governments to change.
Even with that lofty path, Trump has talked about other plans for staying in office beyond 2028, including having JD Vance as the top of a presidential ticket with Trump as the vice president. Trump’s comments on that idea in March were not reassuring.
“Well, that’s one. But there are others too. There are others,” Trump said, refusing to elaborate on whatever plans and schemes he has to stay in office.
Even if he doesn’t have the majorities needed to make the constitutional changes, Trump does have his diehard allies—Representative Andy Ogles filed legislation in January, only days into Trump’s second term, to amend the 22nd Amendment. One of his top lawyers, Boris Epshteyn, has been floating the unfounded claim that Trump could run again in 2028 since at least October 2023.
There’s also the fact that Trump’s allies in the conservative movement, including on the Supreme Court, could support his attempts to stay in office beyond 2028. As with any half-baked or outrageous Trump statement, it’s only far-fetched until Trump tries to put it into action. The question is how strong resistance would be if and when the time comes.
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