(On boardAir Force One) Donald Trump admitted on Wednesday that he was “not authorized” to run for a third term as president of the United States, yet another allusion to a prospect that delights his supporters as much as it frightens his adversaries.
“I am at my highest level in the polls. And you know, from what I’ve read, I believe I’m not allowed to run. So we will see what happens (…). It’s a shame,” the American leader said aboard his plane Air Force Onebound for South Korea.
The 22nde Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1947, provides that “no person shall be elected to the office of President more than twice.”
Mr. Trump, already head of state from 2017 to 2021 and who began a second term on January 20, has often mentioned, since his return to the White House, the possibility of retaining his functions beyond 2029.
He is careful not to openly reject calls to this effect from his supporters and sometimes displays red caps bearing the inscription “Trump 2028”, the year of the next presidential election.
One of the popular hypotheses in the Trumpist sphere would be that the 79-year-old president would run for vice-president in three years, and that the current vice-president, JD Vance, would run for president.
But Donald Trump ruled out this option on Monday. “I would have the right to do it”, but “I would not do it”, he promised, believing that it would amount to “playing smart” and that “it would not be good”. But, he insisted, “we have a lot of great people” for the top responsibilities.
Within his camp, the idea has resurfaced in recent days.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said at a news conference at the Capitol on Tuesday that he had spoken with Mr. Trump about a third term, admitting that he didn’t “see a path to that.”
“We are driving the left crazy”
“It has been a great adventure, but I think the president knows (…) the constraints of the Constitution,” declared the parliamentarian.
“I don’t see a way to amend the Constitution because it takes about 10 years,” he estimated: “It would take two-thirds of Congress and three-quarters of the states to ratify it.”
But last week, Steve Bannon, one of the key ideologues of the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement, spoke of the existence of a project to keep the Republican leader in power.
“There are many alternatives” at 22e amendment, assured this former advisor to Mr. Trump. According to him, the latter “will be president in 2028, people must get used to this idea”. And “there is a strategy” to do this, which will be revealed “in due time”, he added.
Never safe from provocation, the president himself blows hot and cold on the issue. In May, he openly put the hypothesis on the table in front of American soldiers on the al-Udeid base, in Qatar.
Asserting as usual that it was him, and not Democrat Joe Biden, who had actually won the 2020 election, he declared: “We won three elections, okay? And some people want us to do a fourth, I don’t know. We need to think about that.”
Ten days before, when questioned about another file, he had indicated that he did not know whether he had to respect the Constitution, the supreme legal norm of the United States, scandalizing lawyers and political adversaries.
Referring to his online store which offers red caps and t-shirts bearing the inscription “Trump 2028”, he mocked the opposition, who accused him of playing with the rule of law.
“Have you seen the new cap? The most fashionable cap says “Trump 2028”, we are driving the left crazy,” he said.
