Donald Trump loves to troll those afflicted with Trump Derangement Syndrome with anything that might strike them as outrageous. Such political pranks also titillate supporters who relish his unorthodox behavior and style. And they excite media types to flock like moths drawn magnetically to porch lights.
The most recent entertaining ploy is talk of him running for a third term. Trump has said he would “love” to run in 2028. House Speaker Mike Johnson has said Democrats’ “hair is on fire about the very prospect” of a third Trump term.
Of course, it would be against the Constitution’s 22d Amendment, but it’s so outrageously Trumpian to his opponents that it seems like just the thing this unprecedented president might attempt.
This week on Air Force One, during the almost three-hour flight from Japan to South Korea, President No. 47 appeared to put an end to such speculation, referring to the amendment during a chat with pool reporters:
If you read it, it’s pretty clear. I’m not allowed to run. It’s too bad.
You could almost feel the relief in media headlines and commentary from the left that the man who has ingeniously inhabited their heads, hoaxes, and plots for the past decade will be gone for good come the bright, sunny noon on the 20th of January 2029.
Not so fast, folks! That celebratory relief and joy are premature.
Trump also said, “I would love to do it."
The 22d Amendment is clear on seeking election to a third term: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice…” That followed the two-term pattern set by the first president, George Washington.
That constitutional amendment was passed by Congress on March 21, 1947, following Franklin Roosevelt’s four elections. It was ratified by three-quarters of the 48 existing states on Feb. 27, 1951.
Running and winning two presidential elections is certainly very Donald J. Trump. He’s defeated two Democrat women on either side of losing to Joe Biden, who everyone now knows should never have been running in the first place.
On Nov. 8, 2016, Trump registered such an unexpected historic political upset that it struck Hillary Clinton dumb. He denied her the guaranteed inheritance of her husband’s Oval Office. The former first lady was emotionally and physically unable to concede until the next day.
On Nov. 5th last year, Trump forced the vice president and noted salad-chef Kamala Harris to hire a ghost writer to write “her book,” blaming everyone but herself for spending $1.5 billion — $100 million a week — and still losing the presidential race to the man her party had impeached twice and labeled a Nazi.
(A thought bubble for Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and the other old goats still squatting atop the Democrat Party despite that clumsy disaster: If you hadn’t engineered the White House emplacement of that other old goat and his airhead sidekick in 2020, you’d be rid of Trump already and not be stained by the dangerous coverup scandal that will haunt your party and stain your reputation for years.)
Now, here’s why Democrats are experiencing premature elation over Trump’s disappearance come 2029: The 22nd Amendment prohibits anyone from being elected president “more than twice.”
Key word there is “elected.” It says nothing about someone serving as president more than twice.
That might seem far-fetched at this moment. And Trump has even suggested other Republicans like Marco Rubio and JD Vance are highly qualified as nominees in the next cycle. He's correct.
But let’s be candid here. Has anything about U.S. politics not seemed far-fetched since Donald and Melania came down that Trump Tower escalator on June 16, 2015?
A thrice-married billionaire, real-estate mogul, and casino developer from Queens who’s declared at least four business bankruptcies before hosting a top-rated reality TV show that could draw 28 million viewers during its 13-year run, defeats 16 standard Republican primary opponents for the GOP nomination.
Then, the Fifth Avenue-penthouse dweller became the only candidate to detect and then articulate over and over the Heartland’s anger and frustration with both parties’ establishments and ride that into the White House, never having been elected to anything before.
And then, routinely denouncing media that most politicians suck up to for favorable coverage, actually fulfill the numerous campaign promises he repeatedly made, including tax cuts and no new foreign military entanglements.
Experiencing a disputed 2020 election loss, Trump goes on to endure and overcome multiple lengthy, malicious legal prosecutions by Democrats designed to break his spirit, personal and business finances, and reputation while assembling a political team and administration for a new term with hundreds of new executive orders and policies once again fulfilling his campaign promises.
Who does that in modern American politics?
You may not like everything about Trump, or anything for that matter. But unlike most everyone else in public life these days, he is authentic, refreshingly very authentic. When he does those little hand-dances, as he did for the sailors and Marines in Tokyo, they know that's real joy to be with them. Or watch the first couple have fun with youngsters in their Halloween costumes.
READ MORE: Watch: Pres. Trump and the First Lady Have Fun, As Halloween 2025 Arrives at the White House
There’s much more, including extending the tax cuts, negotiating ceasefires in several lethal foreign conflicts, and deporting hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens while finally securing the 1,954-mile-long southern border.
Then, there’s the four years of elder abuse, endangered national security, and party-wide collusion of Democrats hiding the mental incompetence of Biden while attempting to sell Americans on four more years of him, meaning four more years of them marionetting their very own commander in chief.
Other than all that and a Trump assassination attempt missing by a quarter-inch, U.S. politics have just been the usual humdrum, right?
One-time Trump chief strategist, Steve Bannon, claimed to The Economist that there is a detailed third-term plan awaiting enactment:
Trump Is going to be president in '28, and people just ought to get accommodated with that. At the appropriate time, we’ll lay out what the plan is.
Some 150 million voters, especially those clustered in the seven crucial swing states, all of which Trump captured last year, will cast their ballots on or before Nov. 7, 2028.
I know nothing of any secret plan. But here’s one very simple path for Trump to avoid the constitutional ban on presidential campaigns for a third term:
Don’t run in a campaign for president in 2028. Run as vice president on a ticket with a cooperative MAGA member.
I know. I know. No one today, especially Donald Trump, can imagine Donald Trump as a vice president — for long anyway. Today, Trump himself calls the idea "too cute."
But it wasn’t so long ago that no one could imagine Donald Trump as president either. Times have changed. So have possibilities and expectations in this country’s politics.
Predictably, media would attempt to gin up concerns over Trump’s advanced age. They’ve already tried it with little or no success. Earlier this year, Trump was caught watching C-SPAN at 2:30 a.m. and then putting in a full workday.
This past week, Trump, who’s 79, made a long Asian business tour:
Monday in Japan, doing trade and investment deals with Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, speaking to business leaders, and addressing troops aboard the aircraft carrier George Washington; Tuesday, more trade agreements and regional meetings in South Korea; Wednesday, signing new accords with China’s leader Xi Jinping.
Then finally, a flight from Korea to Washington through 13 time zones across the International Dateline to repeat much of Thursday and join Melania handing out Halloween candy to costumed youngsters at the White House.
In 2029, Trump will be 83, the same age as Biden for the next three weeks.
Reporters failed to inquire about Joe Biden’s extremely light “work” schedules, his old-man shuffle, his falls, incoherence, inexplicable shouting, trouble with screen doors and steps, and that vacant zombie stare into nowhere. All while willingly sharing with news consumers copious reassuring quotes from fellow Democrats about that president’s sharp mental acuity.
That makes it doubly striking that the same media has yet to notice President Trump's schedule, in which one ordinary afternoon has more positive official activity than a week of that other guy. And Trump doesn't need a script telling him to say hello.
Life takes sudden turns, of course, but who in their right mind wouldn't want that to continue as long as possible?
