Republican President Donald Trump said on Sunday he was not joking about seeking a third presidential term, which is barred by the U.S. Constitution, but that it was too early to think about doing so.
Trump, who took office on January 20 for his second, non-consecutive White House term, has made vague allusions to seeking a third one but addressed it directly on Sunday in a telephone interview with NBC News.
“No, I’m not joking. I’m not joking,” Trump said, but “it is far too early to think about it.”
“There are, there are methods which you could do it, as you know,” he said. He declined to elaborate on any specific methods.
I think people are giving Republicans too much credit. The 3rd term he’s talking about is if the U.S. is in the midst of a war - he’s literally thinking about what Zelenski did in Ukraine to extend his power / term. I don’t see that as a far-fetched idea either. Let’s be real, war is money(YouTube Link), and the U.S. is struggling with debt. They pull back trade agreements with allies to reignite national industries for the coming years. They’re looking to make somebody an enemy to reignite the economy and retain power. I’d like to think that there’s no way to make this work, I’d like to think DJT won’t make it past the first few years, but we won’t know til’ we know.
Uhhhhhhhh zelenski did not start the war. Russia did.
Struggling is a bit much… Sure, it’s going to get there, but current levels are not a struggle.
I would add that the war with Ukraine is also happening on Ukraine soil, which is very different than a war happening across large bodies of water, as is more likely for the U.S.
I don’t think that matters for what I perceive Trump’s goal to be, just based on his past history. I’m thinking back to Covid when he saw that Chlorox info before a briefing and mentioned maybe injecting (or ingesting?) bleach. I believe that he sees Zelenski extend his power due to wartime and I believe he thinks he will be able to do the same. Now he’s just looking for an enemy to point the U.S. at.
Imagine another 9/11 happening mixed with a media blitz under the DJT administration. While I don’t believe they would be able to pull this off, the thought of the rallying against a specific enemy due to an attack on American soil has a history of rallying the people.
The first step is to remove international dependence on things that we would need for a wartime industry. This is why he’s cutting ties with NAFTA allies. We can’t have them limiting resources we would need for wartime because they certainly won’t agree with what we end up doing. I believe this is why he rallied so hard for Steel workers during his first term too (but failed) to progress this same industry. In the next year or 2 when the factories and industry catches up is when we’re going to start to see the visible sparks of war.
To add onto this one more time - I also think that his interactions with Putin plays a role as well. The people of Russia were not able to stop Putin in his war with Ukraine and I believe that DJT thinks he can pull something similar off. This may as well be possible - he has a cult fanbase and the American people aren’t rallying against a Billionaire buying politicians and running vote lotteries - I’m not sure anything will rally the American people like we’ve seen in the past.
It’s a slow slippery ride into complacency where things progressively get more illegal and illicit and the headlines come and go too quick for the American people to register. It really is going to be a slow, bloodless revolution from The Right. When the time comes and American is at war with a Foreign power (maybe the Mexican Cartel, which would track with Trumps war on drugs and immigration) the American people will mostly accept it, as they have everything else illicit DJT has done so far in his short term in office.
I’m talking about a distinction for why not holding elections in Ukraine might be acceptable, while it is not in the U.S.
I agree, Ukraine didn’t start the war, but that doesn’t change what happened and what I believe Trump’s view of it regarding extending his power.
Hard disagree. It’s the 3rd biggest line item in the Budget after Social Security and Medicaid. Even if the Democrats were in office, the debt payments would have been a struggle to get under control - hard choices did need to be made in this regard.
The US has a long history of wartime elections. Zelensky was able to legitimately do what he did because a large portion of his country is occupied by foreign forces and he has a positive rating in the unoccupied area.
Trump has neither thing going for him. The only other argument they could possibly make, (and it’s really weak), is that they meant consecutive terms. But that opens the door to Obama taking a third term too.
The US has a long time history of a lot of things that this administration is just ignoring or overstepping so I’m not sure that matters during this time. This is not a normal time in the U.S.
Absolutely not arguing that. What Zelensky did / is doing is legitimate, I’m not here to argue against that but what I believe Trump see’s as an opportunity based on his meetings with Zelensky.