Trump again invokes claim he has the ‘right’ to run for third term as president
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/23/trump-third-termOpen linkView original on lemmy.worldSyndicated from the fediverse. Read and engage on the original instance.
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184 replies
He also has the right to get shot in the head by one of his SS, but we all know that's not happening.
It's a distraction from the Epstein files
Cool, then Obama needs to run too.
Obama respects US law. He would never do that
With a mortar launcher.
And a surprisingly (depressingly) large number of law and order preaching conservatives are supportive of him doing it, despite him not being allowed to do that literally being written into the highest legal document in the country.
They just say things in pursuit of their goals. Maybe sometimes they don't even realize because they're riding the emotional high of siding with their in-group, but some do. Some know they're lying scumbags.
But might makes right. What're you going to do to stop them? Nothing. None of us do anything. So the scumbags keep winning.
Pieces of paper are just pieces of paper if it's not enforced.
And lucky us, laws are only enforced against us, not for us. In reality, for the average person, the law kind of doesn't matter anymore. It's been hijacked as a useful tool for neo-fascist oligarchs.
At this point, we should also legalize becoming a President if you're not born in the USA.
Imagine Zohran Mamdani as President...
Bad idea then we would get stuck with netynahu, musk or thiel
Laws aren't important to MAGA
Ask trump who won in 2020. When he says he did, tell him thats two consecutive terms.
Who could have predicted back in 2016 that giving this man power would turn him into a despot?
I didn't vote for him, but I was pretty sure that his plan was to hire people to do everything semi-competently so that he could focus on fucking around and enriching himself. That was a very disappointing thing to be wrong about.
Well, you were only wrong about the first part.
anyone with working eyes and ears
Which turns out to not be a significant minority of the US and A population.
Believe it or not, there was actually a small coalition of just a few hundred million people screaming this from their rooftops around the world. If only the maga crowd could've heard their message sooner.. Surely, well presented fact-based arguments would've changed their minds
They heard it. They also know that because you don't agree with them on everything that you are a dirty liberal, and thus everything you say is a lie and you should be in jail.
Also, they had no other choice. A vote for Democrats means "those people" would get welfare benefits, the border would be wide open, xtians would no longer be allowed to pray, and everyone would be trans and vegan.
And they knew that only a despot would be willing to actually put political opponents in jail, so they voted for one. But then he turned out to be some kind of despot!
I suspect there is a great deal of crossover between maga supporters and flat earthers
Shockingly, I had a coworker who is one of those that thinks they're the smartest person he knows. He was one of those reddit-know-it-alls who spent a lot of time replying to people telling them they're wrong. He claimed he was one of the most well informed people because he "reads both sides". And by "reads both sides" he read the shit he agreed with and the headlines of an article from tHe OtHeR sIdE. He was also a staunch blow rogan supporter.
When he said he was "well informed" I replied "that's what a lot of flat earthers say". He got pissed and didn't even reply. A fellow coworker of ours could barely hold in the laughter
I saw the Good Liars asking donnie supporters about how old the Earth is; and you see some of the dumbest answers.
Haven't seen them probe on the flat earth thing (yet), but being a young-earther is really quite ignorant as well. Oh, and of course, schools shouldn't teach evolution, because goddidit is better for young minds to contemplate, I guess. 🙄
I do believe his mother said something of the sort. That he should in no way ever enter politics
Didn't the 22nd Amendment not allow for people to run for a third term?
if he can run so can obama.
Their spin for it work for Trump and not Obama is that they claim the intent was no more than two "consecutive terms" but consecutive or anything of the like does not even appear. It says once you're elected to two terms you're ineligible for any more, and can even block you from running as the vice president so he can't pull a "run as VD Vance's VP and have him resign" bullshit.
That's not how it works. The law applies to Democrats, not to the Ruling Party.
Obama has absolutely no interest in this shit show. That's half the joke of the current state of the Presidency. You need to either be a grifter, a soulless climber, or a senile coot to pursue the job at this point.
Bonus points for all three?
Certainly doesn't hurt
Does this mean there should be a nonpartisan Presidium?
I'm hearing good things about a Triumvirate executive branch
From what I've read, there was a proposed amendment that would overhaul the executive branch to where three people would act as a collective head of state and government. I think three presidents in the same office would be more interesting than just one.
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100854445
TIL. I had no idea. And now I'm going to have to read up on this.
I was making a reference to the Roman Triumvirate which was famously unsuccessful at keeping one individual from consolidating supreme executive power.
He's coming out of that building on Inauguration Day one way or another.
Impossible it was just a joke last year. You think he would do that setup a horrific violation of Western freedoms as a joke so no one takes it seriously then just full send it?
I thought his original run in 2016 was a joke. Course the man himself is a joke, so at least there's that
In the third term, he's gonna lower the price of gas and groceries & end the wars in Ukraine/Iran. Day 1. Bigly.
The funniest part is he could do 2 of those very literally right now by just...stop attacking Iran.
Don't forget the bestest healthcare plan ever. Aaaaaaaaaany day now.
If we understand "now" as less of a time stamp, and more of a constantly shifting, meaningless word, it all makes sense.
I heard the new healthcare plan is dropping two weeks from "now"! And the Iran war and the genocide in Gaza will end two weeks from "now"! Oh, and Venezuela will be up and running with their new for-US-profit systems two weeks from "now" so we won't have to steal their resources ourselves! Go Trump go!
It's a bigly plan, the most beautiful plan. You can't see it, but many people are saying it's the greatest perfect plan ever.
At this point I would vote democratic just to have a president who can speak well. We had a chuckle at the Bushification of the language but 14+ years of it getting worse is just tiresome.
Oh, so THAT'S why the high gas prices are temporary. It all makes sense now.
While reality again invokes claim he has the 'right' to remain silent because anything he says can and will be used against him in a federal court of law. He has the right to a dipshit attorney, but if he cannot afford one or if all of them refuse to represent a despot, one democratic one will be appointed to him to make sure he goes to federal prison.
If there's still a Constitution by then.
You meant the current constitution his whore Natalie wipes his disgusting orange ass with?
Narrator: There wouldn't be.
Not with that doomer attitude.
Souverän ist, wer über den Ausnahmezustand entscheidet.
And the 4th and the 5th time
The good die young and ducks live forever.
No chance he lives that long
With his unhealthy life style he should have died a decade ago
Trump's going to be kicking it into the triple digits. He and Senator Grassley are going to be tweeting at each other into the election of 2040.
With his mental decline it is unlikely that he will be in any shape to overturn the constitution and mount a campaign. Then stranger things have happened.
They’ll puppet his bloated corpse until the end of Vance’s term.
But Miller will.
I don't think he's working enough to that anyway, he's incompetent on his own, the people that enable and execute these atrocities are just as much to blame
Cool. How about those Epstein files?
I bet in his third term he will definitely release the Epstein files right guys?
I'd love to see the Good Liars asking some Qanon geniuses their thoughts on the state of the Epstein files.
Where did all those brainiacs go, anyway?
He will also release his tax returns.
They'll get released in Obama's third term. Thanks Obama!
Those are the exact words of the 22nd amendment. It's explicit. There's no ambiguity or room for other interpretations. Trump was elected twice, he's hit his limit, that's it.
Conservatives don't give a shit about "laws" or the constitution
Ah that'll be where he's trying to get in again then I assume, cause he's not a person, he's a monster
Sure, but we didn't enforce the 14th amendment section 3, which clearly states that he shouldn't be president currently.
No one enforced our laws, so we have NO LAWS.
Which means, he can just run for president again and if no one enforced the law then it could happen again.
I agree with you on the law, but NO ONE IS ENFORCING ANY LAWS LATELY!!!! So what the fuck does any of it even matter anymore? Hmm?
This November is gunna be fucking fire one way or another
So who is going to stop it?
Trump will run again and probably win, perhaps fairly.
I think the keyword here is “elected.”
14A3. He's simply disqualified
Unless those rumors are true and they did manage to game enough voting machines to clinch the election. In which case he was not actually elected twice…
Its not the general votes that matter. Its the electoral college. So even if they cheated he was still elected twice.
And that's why Vance and the other fascists are waiting until after the midterms to get rid of trump.
Vance is such a thoroughly unpleasant asshole. Of course, I thought the same thing about donnie for years.
But I don't think "JD" "Vance" has this weird hold on the idiots like donnie does. I guess we'll see.
Shrug. Somehow, Ted Cruz manages to get elected and it doesn't seem that anyone really likes him.
I suppose if the Democrats run a woman and/or someone non-xtian or non-white, there will be people that find a way to support "JD", I guess.
There better be a real fucking riots in the streets across the entire damn nation if they come out with this bullshit.
Like I mean burning down federal buildings and police stations, storming the homegrown concentration camps to free the prisoners, a literal million+ person march on Washington DC right to the front door of the White House.
there should be riots in the street rn though.
They're waiting for the elections to fix everything.
When that doesn't work...?
How exactly do you guys think riots would go?
Do you think Trump would just say, "guess they don't like me, I'll leave office"?
Or do you think he would brutally crack down on everyone against him?
Riots would be the casus belli he wants to take military control of the country
Idk man. They did fly the army apache over them last time there was a big protest in Tennessee and then that time they did that weird stuff with firing the missiles in Cali. You're right, but something has to change, I think we're supposed to be brave and strong and united instead of shocked daily and then retreating, frightened, back under a rock to safety.
Like the riots when an insurrectionist was allowed to run for a second term after being ruled ineligible by a State?
But the Roberts Court, dontchaknow, intervened and went directly against the Constitution and made a BLATANTLY unconstitutional ruling that should have invalidated literally all of their appointments.
Trump was ineligible for the second term, whether or not the Roberts Court wanted to acknowledge it.
And hell will freeze over before I give those judges on the Roberts Court the dignity of referring to them with the words that other people call them or that court.
"Sorry everyone, I used my hall-pass to get re-elected so it didn't count... wah, I wanna be Mr.President again! Gimme, gimmie, gimmie"
The election the Constitution is referring to is the Electoral College, not the general election.
Sounds like the foundation of our Democracy was built on quick sand, and the cement poured by the shadiest cheapest contractor capitalism could buy.
This is why is fun to own a whole ass supreme court:
Words are fun for this guy
Trump appointed president for his 3rd term
Unless somebody stops him, he'll do it. All the people that are supposed to check or balance his power are his minions.
That's why ne said he's going to run. He thinks he's smart.
Im sure he could make a convincing argument that he isnt a person and therefore should be allowed to sit for a third term.
There is wiggle room in some amendments but this one seems pretty fucking clear.
It does specify that he has to be a person. Perhaps they're going to argue he isn't?
In a wild turn of events, he's gonna change his name to Deborah and run as our first trans President, claiming the transition resulted in him being a different person.
But then Elon Musk will crack the sads, and have a big sook, with multiple posts on Twitter.
The one weasel notion that I wonder about, what if he was elected VP and the president stepped down directly after? Then he wasn't elected a 3rd time but placed by successions. It wouldn't surprise me to see them try some such fuckary.
I don’t remember the exact wording, but basically to be eligible to be VP one must meet the eligibility requirements for being President. So he’s not eligible to be VP either.
But I recall someone claiming that no such eligibility requirement exists for Speaker of the House, who is in the succession line after the VP.
the legal
hippthesishypothesis is for the house to vote him in as speaker of the house and then the figurehead president and VP resign.If I were a fascist psychopath who had the opportunity to be part of such a scheme, I would 100% promise to step down and then not.
To prevent that, he’d need to replace the secret service with loyal sycophants.
Which could maybe work but even the more loyal bootlicker guys will prefer to be president than not.
They'd have to pause multiple times a day while he had his nap.
Yes, and none of that prohibits him from running for office again. The only prohibition is that he cannot be elected a third time. But here’s the thing: we don’t actually vote for President; we vote for who our Electors elect as President, and they are Constitutionally prohibited from electing Trump to a third term. If Trump runs and “wins”, the Electors cannot elect him. He can win 0 Electoral votes. Doesn’t matter what their States’ laws require because the Constitution is the highest law in the land… until SCOTUS rules the 22nd Amendment violates the 10th Amendment. 🤷🏻♂️
You forget that he stacked the deck
Therefore, by his own logic, he shouldn’t be in office right now, because he won in 2020, riiiight?
It doesn’t matter what it says when neither courts nor law enforcement will enforce it. Looks like we’re running out of democracy boxes.
There’s still one more box after November’s election.
yes, but is anyone gonna stop him?
So it sounds like there's no prohibition against running, just against winning? Sounds like an easy win for the Dems.
It seems pointless to run in an election you are constitutionally barred from winning. But, Trump has proven time and time again he will do pointless things. If he tried running again and somehow he won, however, the constitution is clear: it's a no go. He can't get elected for a third time. That said, I don't think that's necessarily the point. I think the point is to create chaos and crisis. Hopefully he's not around to run in 2028 so it becomes a moot.
Presidential candidate gets extra protections from prosecution and can raise pac money for bribes.
Yes, I fully expect SCOTUS to uphold that one 🙄
Well, he can run again. It's just moot, as he can't be elected. If he were to get the most electoral votes, I guess the runner up is elected?
There's wiggle room, he's claiming a right to campaign. To run... He's not saying anything about being elected.
He doesn't actually do the electing. That's up to public, and the officials who are in charge of elections (who he'll try to stack with loyalists). He can't say what they'll do.
He runs, and if others elect him... Well... That's the wiggle room.
That's not wiggle room, it's violating the Constitution. Not saying it can't happen, but it's not like that's a logic loophole, it's just not caring about acting illegally.
The Constitution specifically doesn't call out Trump so...
/s
Arrest. Charge. Try. Convict. Execute.
Him and everyone who propped up that sack of shit.
Skip to the end.
If extra-judicial execution is good enough for a one year old, then it's good enough for the toddler in chief.
Can we just skip to the end? We all know the results of the middle steps.
Who's going to do the first step though? The police? The police that are bought and paid for by the people that should be arrested? The police that are actively murdering people in the streets instead of defending them?
I keep seeing this "arrest them" and "put them in jail for life" sentiment but nobody has a valid argument of how to do that in our current system without getting disappeared.
Blue states shouldn't allow him on ballots if such a thing were to happen.
How about January 7th 2021 trump gets arrested and executed for sedition? Oh, is this a purity test to far for the democratic party?
Democrats are the cops at Uvalde. Keeping other people from going in and stopping the shooting (complicit alongside the republicans for perpetuating First-past-the-post voting, keeping others from competing against the republicans in the electoral system), yet doing nothing themselves.
Sure blue maga, blame those with no representation in government. Whatever makes you sleep at night.
They should, eya. Just like they should have kept him off in 2024, since he was already ineligible as an insurrectionist.
but only a handful of states actually tried. funny how that worked.
I've been screaming that for years. He shouldn't even be president NOW!! He is an illegal and illegitimate president. He violated the constitution and our laws and was never cleared of those crimes and yet holds public office. But hey, he also violates every other law or rule we have so no biggie, right?
The 22nd amendment is pretty fucking clear on this one
They genuinely don't care. I've seen many clips of republicans, the whole country over, saying they'll figure out a way to get him in a third term.
"But what if it means two in a row!?!?!!?"
That's a literal claim from some Republicans.
No no it has to be the first term, interrupted, then second, then third. The reason? Because they need to exclude Obama from running again.
I've heard this too. Utter insanity. Quick, dig up and reanimate the corpse of Carter.
They are terrified of Obama.
It really upsets them to see a black person with more IQ points than their entire bloodline combined.
And why wouldn't it be?
To be a Republican is to be a grifter/conman/shitstain. Cheating is always on the table.
I know it's hard to plan for all eventualities, but I really wish the founding fathers had covered things in a little more detail.
"No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice...regardless of whether the terms are consecutive."
The founding fathers didn’t come up with the 22nd amendment, that was done in the late 40’s after FDR was elected four times in a row. The founding fathers intentionally left that one open, I think
Yes, it was intentional. They wanted the Constitution to be revised and expanded as necessary, rather than being bad law set in stone. They were well aware they couldn't foresee the many issues that would come up, especially over time. That's why the Constitution is often described as a "framework" for the US's "laboratories of democracy".
He just wants to run, the 22nd says he can't be elected. Not that he can't run.
That's only for democrats.
no-one in the usa will enforce the constitution. So maybe just give it to him now because elon is just going to spend a billion to buy it anyway.
This is the most realistic thing I'm going to see this week.
And don't forget, there will be no "revolution." Frank Freeway is too busy with mandatory overtime and sports on TV.
We know where you stand guardian, didn't need to tell on yourself that directly.
The Guardian has always condemned Trump
They have consistently pointed out his corruption, failures and all the bullshit
If you think The Guardian is supportive of Trump in any way, I question your level of media literacy
If you can't read the above which is directly quoted from the guardian, I question your general literacy.
He doesn’t, obviously, per law.
Though law no longer matters and he will anyway, if he doesn’t die before then, which I think he will since his dementia is so advanced. But whatever.
The whole world knows who Demented Don is.
He absolutely has the right to run. He certainly does not have the right to be elected. The 22nd amendment limits him to being elected twice. By all means, he should run. If anything, it will just ensure whoever the GOP nominates won’t win with The Idiot siphoning off the fascist voters.
However, by his own bullshit math (that he won the 2020 election), he shouldn’t be president now. The amendment specifically talks about being elected to the office more than twice. The only thing it says about serving in the office applies when someone else was elected the first time, and even then sets a limit on how many times that second person can be elected.
Honestly, I support it. It'll be like the election of 1912 where Roosevelt and Taft split the Republican vote enough that the Democrat Wilson was elected.
Why would any Republican run against him?
Seriously the sociopaths (AKA Republicans) are looting the Republic. They couldn’t be happier.
Democrats ran their modern version of Wilson in 2020. It went about as well as in 1913.
He has the right to try! And I have the right to do what I need to stop him
"I was merely exercising my 22nd AND 2nd amendment rights at the same time"
Trump never cared for your constitution so far, what makes you believe he'll start now?
Term limits are trivial to bypass. Same with limitations based on age or the born citizen requirement.
Authoritarians figured this out ages ago. You just get a patsy to run instead. Consider the example of Lurleen Wallace. Her husband, arch-segregationist George Wallace, was term limited per the Alabama constitution. So she ran instead, openly announcing her intention to simply serve as a figurehead. Wallace effectively got another term. She technically was the governor during her term, but George held all the real power. Putin did something similar to get around Russia's term limits.
Sure, if you do this, you have to worry about your figurehead betraying you and seizing real power for themselves, but this is pretty easy to address. You select someone for the patsy role who has absolutely no political power, charisma, or likeability of their own. Someone who could never possibly win an election on their own. Someone from your own patronage network that will remain completely dependent on you.
Imagine if they run someone like Jared Kushner. He is completely and utterly dependent on Trump for his future and livelihood. He has no real political base of his own. Nobody is out there clamoring for President Kushner. If he ran on his own, he wouldn't make it past the first week of the primary. But if he ran as a figurehead? Openly saying, "I'm just here to sit in the chair. I'll do whatever Donald wants. My job is to hold the pen and sign what I'm told to sign. I'm willing to do this because I trust Donald's judgment." He could actually have a shot that way. At least Trump's base would go for it. And Trump would have him completely under his control. Again, Kushner's political and financing fortunes are entirely dependent on staying in Donald's good graces. Kushner could in theory get elected and tell Trump, "get the hell out of my office, I'm president now," but that simply wouldn't be practically possible.
It is not trivial. Of course a precondition is that term limits are absolute, that means no interruption nonsense. You can still have a sock puppet but legally that sock puppet is in power then. That is super dangerous for a fascist regime because betrayal is a real risk then. Putin was also super nervous about it, even if it worked out for him.
The main thing about those absolute term limits is however to add friction to the perversion of a democratic constitution. If voters are ready to accept it, it is too late anyway, but it makes it just a bit harder to justify the actions, while the constitution is not completely overthrown yet.
I get the plan from your example, but the "figurehead" you've selected in your example is probably not the best choice, as he is from the ethnic group that they believe to be entirely consistent of political operatives bent on controlling the world. I dont know that they would vote for a Jewish person even as a Trump stand-in. They would need to run someone with no discernible ethnic ties to a country other than the US. J.D. Vance is probably that guy; he's so nondescript that he doesn't even have a whole name.
No you don't fuckface
Section 1. 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. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.
Section 2. This Article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states within seven years from the date of its submission to the states by the Congress.[3]
Funny how 2/3 of it is boilerplate and grandfathering.
So what?
So, an automatic win for the dems??
Thomas Matthew Crooks
Even if he tried, I think enough states would refuse to list him on the ballot. A few tried last time, arguing he was disqualified because he incited an insurrection on Jan 6th.
Depends how much power he can consolidate between now and election time. Trump brags about telling the DOJ to sue Alaska over election results.
He could run and then do another J6 then use whoever shows up as a personal standing army, arming the loyalists and refusing to leave the Whitehouse for the actual winner.
I'm sure the
ballroombunker will be built by then.That ballroom is really starting to give off "Boston Big Dig" vibes. Maybe it will be done by the time the sun engulfs the planet.
I wish he would
Right?! Are we fucking crazy? Please god, do it. Run. After the first term people crawled out of caves to vote against him. This midterm you have Texas districts turning out voting numbers that almost match the general election.
Yeah, fucking run a 3rd time under the least popular campaign in history with 70% of the populace hating you. The last time at least 2 people tried to kill him.
I fucking dare him. I double dare him!
The monkey paw puts down a finger…
I'd bet money Mother Nature says otherwise.
Then so does Obama ;)
They’ve tried that, specifically so they can say “see?! We can do it too”
The law couldn’t be more clear. I’m sure SCOTUS will find some justification from the days of witches and warlocks to make 1 + 1 !=2
What would happen if he would run as (shudder) Vice President?
That's what I always figured this was. Vance runs, trump VP, and promises to resign as soon as he's nominated, but then he doesn't and it's somehow even wiser
Putin did this one time right? With Medelev
He has the right to pay for as many runs as he wants, but he can only shit in the oval office twice if elected. Is his argument that he has never actually been elected?
We're already way past that.
I count each term as one long, uninterrupted shitstorm.
he deserves it if people dont vote against the gop the next turn.
Another constantly repeated f'ed up distraction from what everybody with a sane mind wants to read.