There's been a lot of talk, on both sides of the political aisle, about President Trump seeking a third term. He can't, of course; the 22nd Amendment prohibits it. But President Trump has hinted at the possibility himself in the past, I suspect mostly just to tweak the American left and the legacy media (but I repeat myself). The man does like to punch the left's buttons, and he always seems to know precisely how to do it.
Now, though, the president seems to have put the matter to bed.
President Donald Trump dismissed a question Tuesday night from a reporter about the possibility of him running for a third term in 2028, saying "the law is very strong."
"Everybody asks me that question, and you know that the law is very strong on that," Trump said while speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. "I'd love to run, but the law is very strong."
"I get asked by everyone, well, even tonight they're screaming at the event, '2028,'" he said, referring to the Patriot Games, which he had attended earlier that day. "No, everybody wants me to do it, but the law is very strong."
The law he references is the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, which clearly states:
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.
And, yes, that rules out the scheme of Trump running as the VP candidate on a Vance/Trump, or Rubio/Trump, or anyone/Trump ticket and then having the new president resign, leaving him in charge. The 12th Amendment closes that door, as it states in part:
But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.
Look, President Trump's place in history is secure. Aside from joining Grover Cleveland as the only presidents to have served two non-consecutive terms, Donald Trump has reshaped the Republican Party, making it more of a populist party, more attuned to the concerns and desires of working-class and middle-class Americans. This was a trend that began under President Reagan in the 1980s, and I can remember pundits in the 1990s and the early 2000s describing the change of the GOP from being the "country club party" to being the "Sam's Club party."
But two terms are enough. There's a reason that the 22nd Amendment was put in place, to ensure that new blood comes to the Oval Office every eight years. And the Republican Party has a surfeit of good candidates right now: Vice President Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, just to name a few possibilities. Meanwhile, who do the Democrats have? Kamala Harris, the Queen of Word Salads? The socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), who never saw a communist platform plank she didn't like? Former Transportation Secretary "Pothole Pete" Buttigieg, who couldn't manage being chief executive of South Bend, Indiana, much less the United States?
It's a safe bet that the president was trolling the left with his tongue-in-cheek pronouncements about a third term. But his putting the matter to rest now, as the midterms fast approach and the 2028 election cycle starts up, is a good sign that he's laying the groundwork for the next generation.
Editor's Note: President Trump is leading America into the "Golden Age" as Democrats try desperately to stop it.
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