# Trump won't rule out 3rd term **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [March 31, 2025, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-wont-rule-out-3rd-term/1016371 "2025-03-31T01:50:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-wont-rule-out-3rd-term/1016371/41 "2025-03-31T10:37:30Z")
He’s continuing to flood the zone. The Signal leak is already yesterday’s news. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-wont-rule-out-3rd-term/1016371/42 "2025-03-31T11:37:27Z")
I would not count on the Presidential Succession Act to save our national hides. Its constitutionality is quite questionable at best and has never been tested. It may state that no officer ineligible to be president under the Constitution may become president- but if you read the 22nd strictly, it says you can’t be elected twice. It doesn’t rule out succession but he can’t be elected either as president or vice-president. So given the election of stooges and being named Speaker, I think it would work. Don’t count on the Supremes bailing us out, either. The Supreme Court Republicans Of The United Maga States would certainly not rule against him. What WOULD foil such a plan would be the election of a Democratic Congress. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-wont-rule-out-3rd-term/1016371/43 "2025-03-31T12:50:46Z")
> [@Chad\_Sudan](#): > > I wonder what would happen if, at the end of Trump’s second term, the Republicans made the presidency more of a figurehead position, and Vance or someone else became president **but** Trump kept effective power as, I don’t know, chairman of the Republican Party, or Secretary for Making America Great Again This is the most likely outcome IMO. It’s the trick his boss Putin pulled at one point too Of course, again, I’d put my money on old father time, and Trump’s octogenarian brain matter, foiling this rather than any of the checks and balances in the constitution (or you know, the Republicans growing a spine). Come 2028 Trump is likely to be the figurehead, completely incapacitated mentally and president in name only. “of course your highness. Vance, will be a purely figurehead, everyone will know you’ll be the really power. Now eat your applesauce and watch this video of the 2024 election results on a loop” ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-wont-rule-out-3rd-term/1016371/44 "2025-03-31T13:01:56Z")
My thought on pretty much the same issue, from another thread: > [@How will this be enforced? (judge orders Trump administration to abide by his restraining order)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-this-be-enforced-judge-orders-trump-administration-to-abide-by-his-restraining-order/1014147/111): > > In and before 2015, I wouldn’t have disagreed with you At. All. But if I’m in the Democrats’ bullpen, trying to game this out, then I’d be painfully mindful of what Sidney Powell, John Eastman, Giuliani, and all the other Insane Clown Posse were doing in 2020: trying to figure out how to circumvent the law to Trump’s advantage. And if the Democrats in power aren’t hoping for the best while planning for the worst … we’re in big, big trouble. Trump is trying to replace the entire Federal workfo… The Alternate Slate of Electors scheme was _inarguably_ a considered and concerted attempt to make an end run around both the Constitution and the will of the people. Anybody who simply believe it couldn’t, wouldn’t, and won’t happen again is self-deluding. I don’t know that it will, but there’s no rational basis for concluding it won’t. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-wont-rule-out-3rd-term/1016371/45 "2025-03-31T13:03:57Z")
If there’s anything we should have learned from Trump over the last few years, if he says something crazy you can’t just dismiss him. In this particular case, I think his age will prevent him from any meaningful effort to attain a third term in office. Were he younger and in better health, I’d be very concerned about his desire to hold on to power. He’s already used violence once before and I don’t think he’s got any qualms about breaking the law. ---
**Author:** ![survinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@survinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/survinga)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-wont-rule-out-3rd-term/1016371/46 "2025-03-31T13:48:26Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > If there’s anything we should have learned from Trump over the last few years, if he says something crazy you can’t just dismiss him. In this particular case, I think his age will prevent him from any meaningful effort to attain a third term in office. Were he younger and in better health, I’d be very concerned about his desire to hold on to power. He’s already used violence once before and I don’t think he’s got any qualms about breaking the law. If he says that he won’t rule something out, and if he has advisors trying to give him options on how to do something, then we should take him seriously. I think Trump, if he’s reasonably “healthy” (for him), will try to stay in office by some nefarious means beyond January, 2029. > [@DavidNRockies](#): > > The Alternate Slate of Electors scheme was _inarguably_ a considered and concerted attempt to make an end run around both the Constitution and the will of the people. > > Anybody who simply believe it couldn’t, wouldn’t, and won’t happen again is self-deluding. After what happened in the 2020 election and aftermath, we can’t assume that it won’t happen again. And this time, there are fewer Republicans who will try and stop him. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-wont-rule-out-3rd-term/1016371/47 "2025-03-31T13:58:19Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Moreover, anyone lower on the list than the veep only becomes acting president in such a scenario - as soon as Congress appointed a new vice president, that person would become president and the acting president would revert to their former office. That would be the Congress that chose Trump as Speaker, specifically so he could become President again? The Senate has shown with Supreme Court nominees that they don’t have any obligation to actually allow any debate or vote on such things, so there’s nothing stopping a pro-Trump Congress from just dragging their feet for four years. Eventually just having an “acting” President will become normal. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-wont-rule-out-3rd-term/1016371/48 "2025-03-31T14:15:25Z")
> [@glee](#): > > as the next election becomes due, invade Greenland, then claim elections can’t be held\* in war-time) How would that work exactly? Even ignoring the Presidential elections of 1916, 1940, 1944, how would Trump stop the states from conducting their elections. Please describe the mechanics of it. > [@DavidNRockies](#): > > The Alternate Slate of Electors scheme was _inarguably_ a considered and concerted attempt to make an end run around both the Constitution and the will of the people. > > Anybody who simply believe it couldn’t, wouldn’t, and won’t happen again is self-deluding. And the success rate of that strategy was …? ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-wont-rule-out-3rd-term/1016371/49 "2025-03-31T14:25:22Z")
There’s always Plan B: Trump doesn’t “run” for any office, but the party chooses somebody who will be his puppet. This has the added advantage of his being able to call the shots even if, somehow, some state manages to throw him into a prison cell. Attempts to restrict access to him with things like, “We’re sorry, but he is in solitary confinement and is denied all outside access,” is nothing that enough soldiers can’t “fix.” ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-wont-rule-out-3rd-term/1016371/50 "2025-03-31T14:37:27Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > And the success rate of that strategy was …? I feel like this response speaks more to an individual’s _need to believe_ “it can’t happen here” than it does to ground their positions in reality. Terrorists adapt, change tactics, and persist. Terrorists. Same with predators in the wild. Believing that wealthy, educated, powerful people of European ancestry, dressed in suits and having their hands firmly on the tillers of control … don’t do the exact same thing … is simply a denial of objective reality and an effort to adopt an anodyne position in response to chaos and threat. Very understandable. Probably even helpful on the individual level. But it calls to mind an old saying: hope is not a strategy. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-wont-rule-out-3rd-term/1016371/51 "2025-03-31T14:38:43Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > I feel like this response speaks more to an individual’s _need to believe_ “it can’t happen here” than it does to ground their positions in reality. Nope. It speaks to the fact that alternate slates completely did not work. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-wont-rule-out-3rd-term/1016371/52 "2025-03-31T14:41:54Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Nope. It speaks to the fact that alternate slates completely did not work. It’s worth the time it would take to both read and consider the rest of my post. ETA: I’d also prefer that Democracy itself didn’t depend on the vagaries of a Mike Pence and/or a Dan Quayle. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-wont-rule-out-3rd-term/1016371/53 "2025-03-31T14:47:23Z")
I did read the rest of your posts. Of all of the strategeries put out there, alternate slates just would not work. In blue states, those were all shut down at the capitals. Did you see what happened at Denver when they tried it? And Congress has no power to not accept the slates signed of by the state’s Sec’y of State. > [@DavidNRockies](#): > > ETA: I’d also prefer that Democracy itself didn’t depend on the vagaries of a Mike Pence and/or a Dan Quayle. Interesting that in your example, you use Pence who stood up to Trump and followed the law. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-wont-rule-out-3rd-term/1016371/54 "2025-03-31T14:48:24Z")
> [@glee](#): > > as the next election becomes due, invade Greenland, then claim elections can’t be held\* in war-time) > [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > How would that work exactly? Even ignoring the Presidential elections of 1916, 1940, 1944, how would Trump stop the states from conducting their elections. Please describe the mechanics of it. Trump announces that elections cannot be held at this time. if a State goes ahead, he states (heh) that it’s an illegal action by left-wing terrorists who hate America. He then ignores the result. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-wont-rule-out-3rd-term/1016371/55 "2025-03-31T14:49:11Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > And Congress has no power to not accept the slates signed of by the state’s Sec’y of State. If Trump controls Congress, then they ignore the slates. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-wont-rule-out-3rd-term/1016371/56 "2025-03-31T14:49:15Z")
> [@glee](#): > > Trump announces that elections cannot be held at this time. if a State goes ahead, he states (heh) that it’s an illegal action by left-wing terrorists who hate America. > He then ignores the result. Which he can do all he wants … but that doesn’t matter if Congress counts the votes anyways. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-wont-rule-out-3rd-term/1016371/57 "2025-03-31T14:50:49Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Which he can do all he wants … but that doesn’t matter if Congress counts the votes anyways. As I said, if Trump controls Congress, then they ignore the slates. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-wont-rule-out-3rd-term/1016371/58 "2025-03-31T14:51:05Z")
The chief architect of the plan doesn’t agree with you, and – due respect – it’s kind of what he does/did for a living: > **[Eastman memos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastman_memos)** > > The Eastman memos, also known as the "coup memo", are documents by John Eastman, an American law professor retained by then-President Donald Trump, advancing the fringe legal theory that the Presiding Officer of the United States Senate, either the President of the Senate or the President pro tempore, has the unilateral authority to count, deliberate over, and reject certified state electors and electoral votes. This theoretical power could be used to nullify an election in order to p Trump an... From whence the confidence, then, if not where I posited? It was really Pence and Quayle that foiled the plan. Absent them … who can say whether or not it would have worked, and … based on what? ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-wont-rule-out-3rd-term/1016371/59 "2025-03-31T14:55:41Z")
If Republicans control Congress in 2028, then Congress will choose Trump over the law and there will be little that blue states can do to stop it. The GOP is a criminal party of power, not of constitutional norms. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-wont-rule-out-3rd-term/1016371/60 "2025-03-31T14:56:24Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Interesting that in your example, you use Pence who stood up to Trump and followed the law. Interesting that you don’t appear to understand that Pence isn’t the VP in Trump 2.0. Like terrorists … they improvise, they adapt, they persist. What’s so hard to understand about that? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-wont-rule-out-3rd-term/1016371.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-wont-rule-out-3rd-term/1016371.md?page=4)