By Sophie Albertie
President Donald Trump will not be running for a third term.
He reached this conclusion in a statement to the reporters accompanying him on an Air Force One flight to South Korea Wednesday, Oct. 29
“I have the highest poll numbers that I’ve ever had, you know, based on what I’ve read I guess I’m not allowed to run, so we’ll see what happens,” Trump said.
“I’m not allowed to run, it’s too bad, but we have a lot of great people.”
The topic of Trump running for a third term in the presidential election, and directly doing so against the 22nd amendment, was a conversation for a surprisingly long amount of time before this interaction. Steve Bannon, former chief strategist to the president, mentioned that there was an active plan in place for Trump to achieve this goal only a week prior to said claim being shut down.
“Trump is going to be president in ‘28, and people just ought to get accommodated with that.” Bannon said. He then continued to say that there were many different alternatives to upholding the 22nd amendment, which states that no one person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.
“At the appropriate time, we’ll lay out what the plan is, but there is a plan, and president Trump will be the president in ‘28,” Bannon said.
A video was posted to the president’s Instagram account which showed him standing at a podium that reads “Trump 2048” before advancing on into an infinite number of years. The clip has since been deleted following Wednesday’s statements.
This attitude has persevered as early as his first election run in 2015. In front of the podium he tells the press that he will never leave the race before he is even elected president. Fast-forward to 2020, Trump told advisors that he would refuse to leave the office on former President Joe Biden’s inauguration day.
Of course, he was gone for four years. Since his return, he has continued his claims in passing about his desire to run again, and for as long as he can remain in office.
Objectively, why should any president be stopped from running for a third term?
The answer connects more to the benefit of society than it does a corrupt politician having all of the power. The 22nd amendment was first prompted by Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency.
Roosevelt was a Democrat who ended up serving four terms in office from 1933-1945. This should not have happened, despite the people wanting him to be there. A presidency should not run longer than the allotted time stated in the constitution for any reason. The same set of standards can and should be applied to the predicament of Trump wanting to stay in office for the foreseeable future. Otherwise, the line is crossed over from democracy into authoritarianism.
No matter how badly MAGA fans think they might want this, any overstepping of the constitution is bound to limit the country and any progress America might make moving forward under the same presidential rule for longer than previously stated.
