President Trump’s counsel considered third term
During a meeting in late 2023, Boris Epshteyn, Donald Trump’s lawyer, boldly declared that Trump would not necessarily be restricted to two terms in president. Epshteyn disputed the idea that Trump would be a lame duck if he won the 2024 election in an October 2023 speech to an associate in downtown Washington. According to the person Epshteyn talked with, Epshteyn claimed to have researched the legislation and to have thought Trump could be able to run again in 2028.
Even though Epshteyn was being serious at the moment, the associate found the remarks humorous. Recounting them to others in Washington, the individual joked that even before Trump had won the 2024 Republican primary, Epshteyn had begun preparing for a third term. However, 18 months later, the individual recalls the discussion with concern because Trump has publicly hinted at staying in office after his term is up. The president’s current outside counsel, Epshteyn, declined to comment for this report. “It’s far too early to think about” a third term, White House communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement.
Trump sparked a long-simmering debate in Washington about how serious he is about running for a third term this past weekend when he said that he was “not joking” about remaining in office after his current term ends in January 2029. In an interview with NBC News, the president mentioned unspecified “methods” to secure a further four years in office. At the conclusion of his second term, Trump would be eighty-two. Trump has been thinking about, joking about, flirting with, and generally bringing up the possibility of serving more than two terms in office since he first won the presidency in 2016. The president’s informal approach to bringing up a serious subject has made it into a Trump-style Rorschach test, where many of his supporters laugh or shrug it off while those who despise and fear him see bright red flashing warning signs.
Critics of Trump’s statements are dismissed by some of his advisors. They claim that he is making jokes and that he is making fun of liberals and the media. The president is allegedly trying to deflect attention from the disclosure that a journalist was part of a group text message in which senior officials discussed a secret military strike, according to those close to him. According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump reportedly told a buddy that he made these remarks to “drive the media crazy.” However, some prominent Republicans have privately stated that they believe Trump could attempt to stay in office and that they take him at his word. In interviews, they pointed out that lawmakers, corporations, law firms, and universities have not put up much of a fight against the president’s policies thus far in his second term. They also warned that if he keeps gaining power, it may become harder to stop him in the years to come.
Some of Trump’s closest advisors have also looked into the issue, as evidenced by Epshteyn’s discussions with others. According to the constitution, Trump cannot be elected to a third term. Presidents can only be elected to two terms, according to the Constitution’s 22nd Amendment. Marc Short, who served as Trump’s first vice president Mike Pence’s chief of staff, expressed doubts that Trump would run for a third term. However, Short added that he has rejected other Trump concepts that have become reality: “I’ve previously stated that ‘he couldn’t’—and he has demonstrated the capacity to accomplish these things,” Short stated. Short claimed that as long as his popularity among Republican voters is high, Republicans will not oppose him. “More Republicans will speak out if the president’s policies have economic repercussions that lower his approval ratings, but not until then,” Short stated.
The president’s remarks shouldn’t be taken seriously, according to one Trump supporter. The guy quickly responded, “Taking over Greenland,” when asked for a comparable example of a Trump project that was unrealistic and failed. However, the plan to acquire the independent Danish territory has evolved from an implausible Trump whim during his first term to a foreign policy need for the United States during his second term. The rumors of a third term have spread throughout society. “Brass tacks,” presenter Jason Calacanis asked a guest in a mid-March episode of the tech-finance-culture podcast “All In,” “Trump is running for his third term versus Gavin Newsom—who do you vote for?” Trump’s first-term chief strategist, Steve Bannon, stated to NewsNation last month that “we’re working on” plans for a second term.
Reporters have pressed Trump to explain his comments since he sparked the most recent round of third-term discussions on Sunday. Hours after the first interview was made public, Trump declared on Sunday night, “I don’t want to talk about a third term now.” Trump stated, “I’ve never looked into it,” in the Oval Office on Monday. They do say that there is a technique to accomplish it, but I am not aware of it. “It’s not really something we’re thinking about,” stated White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday.
Trump and his team’s conflicting messages have sparked conjecture both online and at cocktail parties in Washington. One theory is that Trump might run as vice president on a ticket that had JD Vance or another candidate at the top. Then that somebody would resign, and Trump would win the presidency once more. According to this theory, Trump is still in conflict with the Constitution’s 12th Amendment, which declares that “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of president” may serve as vice president. In order to provide Trump an additional four years, Rep. Andy Ogles (R., Tenn.) proposed legislation to amend the 22nd Amendment to allow a president to serve three terms if one of them is nonconsecutive. However, changing the constitution is not that simple. His resolution would require the support of three-fourths of the states in the United States and a two-thirds majority in both the House and the Senate in order to be ratified.
In the months leading up to the 2020 election, Trump often considered running for a third term. In an interview with NBC News in June 2019, he seemed to dismiss the idea of a third term. Trump declared, “There won’t be a third term.” In June 2020, Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., had an interview with him for a part that was posted on a Trump campaign YouTube channel. As Donald Jr. began to offer a question, he said, “If you don’t run for a third term —… With a compliment to his son, Trump replied, “He’s doing a good interview.” Trump occasionally raised the topic throughout the 2024 campaign trail, mentioning the possibility of a third or even fourth term. Trump’s thoughts and other acts were seized upon by Democrats, who used them as a springboard to make upholding democracy a central topic of the 2024 presidential campaign. They didn’t find it effective.
