Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday said what the Constitution clearly states: that there is no path for President Trump to seek the third term he keeps floating.
Still Mr. Johnson, a former constitutional lawyer, said it was fun to pretend there was a possibility of a Trump 3.0, just to own liberals who are alarmed by the chatter.
“The president knows, and he and I have talked about the constrictions of the Constitution, as much as so many of the American people lament that,” Mr. Johnson said at a news conference when asked about Mr. Trump’s latest comments dangling the possibility of seeking a third term.
(“I would love to do it,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Air Force One while flying from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Tokyo.)
“I don’t see a way to amend the Constitution; I don’t see the path for that,” Mr. Johnson said — but not before complimenting the “Trump 2028” cap that the president likes to wear and display in the Oval Office, and noting that it was still fun to entertain the idea.
“The ‘Trump 2028’ cap is one of the most popular that’s ever been produced,” Mr. Johnson said. “And he has a good time with that, trolling the Democrats, whose hair is on fire about the very prospect.” (Indeed, there’s nothing in the Constitution that prohibits trolling.)
The statement on Tuesday was notable for Mr. Johnson, who has made himself so subservient to the president that Mr. Trump has joked to people, “I am the speaker and the president.” Mr. Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, almost always defends Mr. Trump’s actions and dodges uncomfortable questions by claiming, simply, that things are “not my lane” if they might put him crosswise with Mr. Trump.
So his gentle dismissal of the 2028 chatter, while merely a statement of fact, counted as a minor news event.
Despite the 22nd Amendment, which limits a presidency to two terms, Mr. Trump continues to flirt with the possibility that he might like to seek a third. Whether he is serious or not, the discussion allows him to avoid embracing his lame-duck status and the idea that he must eventually cede the spotlight to a potential successor.
Some Republicans have been willing to follow him down that road. Representative Randy Fine, Republican of Florida, called for the repeal of the 22nd Amendment after Mr. Trump helped broker a deal between Israel and Hamas to free the Israeli hostages.
“The Nobel Peace Prize isn’t enough,” Mr. Fine wrote on social media. “We should repeal the 22nd Amendment and thank the Lord for every day @realdonaldtrump can be our president.”
Senator Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama, told reporters on Tuesday that whether Mr. Trump decides to “go around the Constitution” would be “up to him.”
“Will it happen? Very unlikely,” he said. “But don’t ever close the book on President Trump.”
Annie Karni is a congressional correspondent for The Times.
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