No joke
When Trump says he’s considering it, BELIEVE HIM, no matter what the “it” is.
Donald Trump’s suggestion that there are “methods” by which he could run for a third term as US president has been met with scorn – but also warnings that he could seriously attempt it, despite being explicitly barred from doing so by the US constitution.
There it is right there, even in the very act of warning against it. It’s not a “suggestion”! Calling it a suggestion weakens it, which is exactly what we should not be doing, journalism very much included. He’s not fucking suggesting, he’s shouting as loudly as possible.
“The biggest mistake of the last eight years is that we somehow failed to give credibility to Donald Trump’s whims and impulses, but we know it’s true,” David Jolly, a former Republican member of Congress, told MSNBC.
“January 6 was a perfect example. If he says he’s not ruling it out, then he’s not ruling it out, and we should consider it a constitutional threat.”
The second-biggest mistake is that journalists and pundits and talking heads kept translating Trump’s shouting into “suggestions.”
On Sunday Trump was asked on NBC’s Meet the Press about if there were plans for him to stay on in a third term as president. “Well, there are plans,” Trump said. “There are – not plans. There are methods – there are methods which you could do it, as you know.”
No they don’t know, and neither does anyone else, because it’s not true. It’s a flagrant lie.
Democrats have attacked Trump for his rhetoric, claiming it follows a pattern of authoritarian posturing by the president.
Another tricksy word. His authoritarianism isn’t posturing, it’s much much much too real. And yet a third: “rhetoric” – it’s not just rhetoric: he means it.
There are methods, but none of them are legal. The problem is, who is going to enforce the law?
Apparently no one.
Having “suggested” this, he’ll play it out as a disingenuous “reluctance” to serve a third term, but being “forced” to do so because of “popular demand”, having conveniently forgotten that he said he was plotting to do it all along in the first place.
I don’t think he’ll pretend to be reluctant. He doesn’t do meta. He doesn’t do subtle. He doesn’t do pretend. He just shouts and grabs and pushes until he’s physically forced to stop (which currently means never).
The other one is running as Vance’s (or someone else’s) VP. He will try to do this shit, 100%, but I don’t know that it’d work. If he looks weak it’ll be a hard trick to pull off.
I’d like to see some reporting on any military recruiting malfeasance. If they just want to wait out the patriotic service members and replace them, well four years is a long time.
BKiSA,
That’s an unlikely scenario for a couple of reasons. First, it’s equally unconstitutional, so if that’s the plan he might as well take the top position. Second, if he were to do that, whoever’s on the top of the ticket would likely stab him in the back. I doubt that any of his allies actually like him; they’re just using him.
It’s hard to imagine anyone liking him. Just for one thing he’s so mind-numbingly BORING.
I never understood the appeal.