Re: [OT] Trump's third term

On Sun, 30 Mar 2025 22:49:20 -0400, Rhino
<no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

On 2025-03-30 10:05 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
 

I see that Trump has mused about running for a third term. This CBC
article explains why that couldn't happen and suggests that this puts an
end to the discussion.

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-third-term-president-constitutional-1.7497480

 

For some strange reason - ignorance, I expect - they complete ignore a
perfectly legal way to get Trump a third term: amend the 22nd amendment
to increase the number of terms or repeal that amendment altogether.

 

If I remember correctly, he'd need to get the approval of 3/4 of the
states and 2/3 of both chambers of Congress to agree and they'd only
have a set number of years to do it but if Trump really is as popular as
he thinks he is, that should be quite possible.

 
The set number of years was a characteristic of specific amendments
proposed in Congress but not others. It's not clear if that's
constitutional.

>
Fair enough. I was remembering the ERA which *almost* passed but fell
slightly short. As I recall, they gave it an extra few years but it
still fell short.

 
Good luck to Trump on his quest to become dictator.

>
Was FDR a dictator when he ran for his third and fourth terms?

No, because it was permissible for FDR to run for those terms. The law
changed after FDR passed away so Trump wants to break the law. Now he
is suggesting he could run as VP, get elected and then have the
President step aside so he could take office. With the idea that
sidesteps the provision against a third term as President, but I've
seen many legal experts state that is exactly why Trump couldn't be a
VP as it puts him in line to become President.

Though that would also rule him out as a Cabinet member, Attorney
General or Speaker of the House. I wonder if there would just be a
declaration that he can take on any of those roles but he can't become
President so he would just be skipped if something were to happen to
the current President and Trump was in line for the office.

As you stated his only currently legal option is to change the
amendment but that requires too many things to go his way as he is
only really popular with his faithful and that's not enough to change
the Constitution.

For the record, I'm not wishing for Trump to become a dictator or
president-for-life. I believe term limits are a healthy thing for any
democracy. There are simply too many career politicians in office in
many countries. If a politician hasn't accomplished what he/she wanted
to do in one or two terms, then why give them more terms? And if they
didn't have specific goals that could be realized in whatever term
limits exist, why did they run in the first place?

That question could and should be asked of Trump. If all his current
goals were so important why didn't he attempt them in his first term?

Even hellholes like North Korea might be more bearable if there leaders
were limited to five or ten years; at least then they'd have a bit of
variety. I have to believe that the world would have been a better place
if the terms of pretty much EVERY long-term ruler had been shorter,
including the dictators and the people who managed to win fake elections
for year after year after year like Mugabe, Putin, etc.