President Donald Trump has long seemed fixated on winning a third term as president, from sure signs like openly discussing it and saying he could find a legal framework for obtaining it to obsessing over the number 22, which is the same number as the Constitutional amendment barring presidents from seeking a third term.
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Yet according to a recent report, Trump is also considering what his life will be like as a former president.
“President Donald Trump has frequently suggested he wants to seek a third term, posting about mounting another campaign, donning 2028 caps and discussing ways to make it happen — even as he’s acknowledged the Constitution prohibits it,” reported the Associated Press (AP) on Monday. “But lately, Trump has begun showing signs that even he doesn’t really believe another run will happen.”
They added, “During recent speeches, the Republican president has begun describing life after the White House when his term ends in January 2029, predicting he’ll be at home and agonizing as his successor claims credit for his accomplishments.”
As Michigan State University constitutional law professor Brian Kalt told the AP, “He is all over the place, and what that does is, it allows him to point to his own words to support any number of mutually exclusive things.”
Kalt added, “‘Oh yeah, I made it clear that I wasn’t gonna run.’ Or, if he decides that he will, he could say, ‘Well, you know, I never said I wouldn’t.'”
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Trump has also said that, once his presidency is over “I’ll be sitting home. I may be crying.”
During a speech in Pennsylvania, Trump also was ambiguous about his plans.
“In two and a half years, you may have a different president — may,” Trump said. “I’ll be sitting home. I’ll be reading the papers. I’ll be watching television. And I’ll be having some guy — like last time, a real idiot [President Joe Biden] — stand up and say, ‘We are doing record business.'”The president also seemed to contemplate a post-presidential life when he told reporters in the Oval Office that his controversial ballroom is “not for me, ’cause I’m going to be here a very short period of time” and that, because it is projected to be completed in 2028, “I’ll be there for four, five, six months. This is for future presidents.”
The 22nd Amendment unambiguously bars Trump from seeking another presidential term.
“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,” the Amendment states.
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