Trump A Third Term? -or- Grab Your Barf Bags
Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2020 6:55 pm
Trump Says He Will ‘Negotiate’ Third Term Because He’s ‘Entitled’ To It
Andrew Solender
Andrew SolenderForbes Staff
KEY FACTS
During a rally in Minden, Nevada, Trump predicted he would win reelection and carry Nevada, a state he lost narrowly in 2016.
“After that,” Trump said, “we’ll negotiate,” asserting that he’s “probably entitled to another four after that” based on “the way we were treated.”
The comments echo ones Trump made during a rally in Wisconsin in August, in which he stated he would win four more years and “go for another four years” because “they spied on my campaign,” likely referencing his unproven “Obamagate” theory.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer-turned prolific critic, has argued that Trump’s comments should not be disregarded as humor, instead asserting that Trump believes he should be the “ruler” or “dictator” of the U.S. and wants to “change the Constitution.”
Cohen predicted that, were Trump to win reelection, “he is going to automatically day number one start thinking how he can change the Constitution for a third term, and then a fourth term.”
Forbes has reached out to the White House and the Trump campaign for comment.
Cohen claimed Trump’s affinity for dictators is the tell that he himself has similar ambitions. “Like what he said to President XI and like what he said to so many other people,” Cohen said of Trump’s musing about a third term. “It's why he admires the Kim Jong Uns of the world."
KEY BACKGROUND
The 22nd amendment to the constitution, ratified in 1951 after Franklin D. Roosevelt’s unprecedented four-term presidency, prohibits a president from seeking more than two terms in office. To change it, Trump would have to whip the votes of a two-thirds majority of both houses of Congress or have two-thirds of state legislatures call a constitutional convention, both unlikely propositions given modern hyper-partisanship.
BIG NUMBER
7.5%. That’s how much Biden leads Trump nationally in the RealClearPolitics average, meaning a second term for Trump may be even more unlikely than a third.
