It Could Be Done

Evidently, anyone could earn a law degree at Fordham University in the 1990's. Last week, Steve Bannon told Chris Cuomo (at 1:36 of the video below) on the latter's show on NewsNation

...and President Trump, I'm a firm believer that President Trump will run and win again in 2028. So I've already endorsed President Trump. A man like this comes along once every century if we're lucky. We've got him now. He's on fire and uh, I' a huge supporter, want to see him again in 2028.

Cuomo, who got his Juris Doctor degree from the Bronx institution in 1995, replied "... and you know he's term-limited. how do you think he gets another term?"

 

 Afterward, Cuomo brought on regulars Bill O'Reilly and Stephen A. Smith to argue about the possibility of Trump serving as President after January, 2029. O'Reilly remarked "O.K., so that's a fantasy and I don't really consider those kinds of things. It's not going to happen, never will happen, not worth my time or your time." Smith responded

Respectfully, Bill O'Reilly, it doesn't matter whether it's not going to happen. It matters that people on the right who preached for decades upon decades about following the Constitution suddenly come on national television and they say there's nothing wrong with circumventing it. That's the issue.

The Twenty-Second Amendment says it, O.K.? It explicitly states in the Constitution that for the presidency, there will be a two-term limit. No person can serve more than two terms. They know this. They're the same people that spent decades and decades telling us "the Constitution, the Constitution, the Constitution, we're going to follow the Constitution. But now that they've got a guy in office that they swear by, suddenly the rules don't apply.

So I understand what you're saying when you say it's not going to happen. But to dismiss it and act lie it means absolutely nothing, well, I got news for you. The election ain't till 208, o.k., and there's going to be a hell of a lot, a hell of a lot of millions of American citizens, that people on the right who are supporters of Trump, have absolutely no problem echoing and articulating and parroting that kind of speech that Steve Bannon just threw out there. I'm very alarmed by it and I don't even think it's going to happen myself. But the gall, the audacity for him to come on national television and say such a thing. I think it's incredibly alarming.

 

Credit "Stephen A.," as he likes to be called for condemning the GOP for its hypocrisy because for decades many Republicans would claim that they were "constitutionalists" or "strict constitutionalists." And suggestions by Bannon, the President, and others that Trump may run for a third term are alarming, though perhaps they may eventually wake Democrats up to the possibility that Trump may still be in the White House after 1/20/29. 

Nonetheless, he's wrong (as is Cuomo) about the 22nd Amendment, Section 1 of which reads (with relevant portion here placed in asterisks)

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.

This Amendment is commonly misunderstood. According to The Independent, "the 22nd amendment of the constitution limits any one person to a maximum of two four-year terms as president." A Newsweek reporter writes that "Bannon has already said Trump should run for a third term in 2028, though the 22nd Amendment bans any one individual from serving more than two terms." Peter Nicholas of NBC News writes "yet others believe that if the Constitution is somehow amended to permit a third term..." and thereby strongly implies that the Constitution would have to be amended to allow that third term.

But it wouldn't. Neither the 22nd Amendment, nor anything else in the document, precludes a third (or fourth or fifth or sixth) term for a President. It precludes election to a third term. Presumably, the authors of the Amendment assumed that no tyrant would become President and if he did, he would get the hint.

Lindsey Choo of Forbes is the rare reporter or pundit who clearly appears to have read the Amendment and not assumed that which isn't present. She notes

The 22nd Amendment specifically bars anybody from being “elected” president more than twice, so some experts think Trump could serve in a temporary presidential role under specific circumstances, such as if he were to become vice president and ascend to the presidency.

Such an ascension would occur if Donald Trump in 2027 or 2028 conditioned his support for a candidate in the GOP primary upon his or her agreement to place Trump on the ticket. If the ticket were victorious, the winning presidential candidate presumably would resign shortly after taking the oath of office. For added effect of the best Nielsen numbers ever for an inauguration, the news could leak that the winning candidate would announce his/her resignation during the acceptance speech. Trump would find the attentions and the ratings absolutely orgasmic.

The Ukrainian parliament has postponed elections until Russia's war against Ukraine ends. President Trump might reasonably (albeit dishonestly) claim in 2028 that the nation is at war, whether in the wake of a missile strike against Iran, fentanyl or immigrants crossing the border, or European leaders defying him on any matter. There also is a legitimate possibility that President Trump would declare a different national emergency or martial law for some reason or another. The man's creativity is virtually endless. 

Alternatively, Donald Trump, 78 years old as of now, may die before the next Republican National Convention. Or maybe he will decide voluntarily to give up the presidency on January 20, 2029. When pigs fly.

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