Boo! Trump in ’28?

It’s Halloween, so I thought I’d tell the scariest story I could come up with.

The twenty-second amendment is pretty clear: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice,”

And yet there’s no reason to think that’ll stop Donald Trump from seeking a third term. After all, in his telling he’s already in his third term having been elected three times, including the one that was stolen from him in 2020.

So when Trump and Steve Bannon talk openly about a Trump candidacy in 2028 that needs to be taken seriously. Of course they’re having some fun trolling the libs just to get a reaction, but that’s likely just a bonus to the real game. Sure, Speaker Mike Johnson has dismissed that talk out of hand, but when was the last time you saw Johnson stand up to Trump on anything? If this becomes a serious campaign Johnson will surely cave.

Here’s what I think may be a plausible scenario. Trump runs again for the Republican nomination and easily wins it. Blue states refuse to put him on the ballot citing the twenty-second amendment, but the Supreme Court rules that the plain language of the amendment prohibits anyone from being elected, not appearing on a ballot. They order all states to put him on their ballots.

Trump rigs the election so that he “wins.” Democrats head back to court to argue that the twenty-second amendment surely applies now. The Court rules that voters have essentially repealed it by electing Trump. They knew the amendment would block a third term and yet they voted to override it. That makes no legal sense, but neither did their ruling that Trump was essentially immune to all criminal prosecutions.

Sure, people would be in the streets over this, but that’s why Trump will have spent the previous four years getting people used to seeing troops in American cities.

And there ya go. Four more years.

It’s just inconceivable to me that Donald Trump will step down voluntarily in any case. Maybe he’ll run for Vice President the way Vladimir Putin stepped aside for a few years while he controlled his ostensible successor from the wings. There are variations on this theme, but Trump will not do what every American President has done up until 2020 — graciously hand off power in the interests of American democracy.

The Republican Party won’t stop him because it has become his cult. The Democrats are powerless and the Supreme Court is timid — which is the kindest word I can find to describe what they’ve become.

The only hope is self-interest. There are a dozen Republicans who think they should be the president in 2029. If they see any crack in Trump’s support among his base they’ll try to widen it to create an opening big enough for them. But don’t count on that. Trump’s base is as solid as any in American history. And any Republican who dares defy him has hell to pay from them.

That’s why I’m so interested in the likes of Josh Hawley, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz. They’re all gently breaking with Trump while some of them are pursing a more traditional kind of conservative pluralism. I’ll be interested to see if they pay a price for that or gain some traction.

In the meantime Trump has no reason not to keep selling the Trump 2028 hats. At the very least it keeps people guessing and staves off the lame duck label.

So, there ya go. The story of the Vampire President who would not die. Scared?