Donald Trump flirted with the idea of being president for three terms – a clear violation of the US constitution – during a bombastic speech for the National Rifle Association in which he vowed to reverse gun safety measures green-lighted during the Biden administration.
“You know, FDR 16 years – almost 16 years – he was four terms. I don’t know, are we going to be considered three-term? Or two-term?” The ex-president and GOP presidential frontrunner said to the organization’s annual convention in Dallas, prompting some in the crowd to yell “three!” Politico reported.
Trump has floated a third term in past comments, even mentioning a prolonged presidency while campaigning in 2020. He has also tried distancing himself from this idea, telling Time magazine in April: “I wouldn’t be in favor of it at all. I intend to serve four years and do a great job.”
And that’s a big part of why, despite everything Biden is doing, I am 100% voting for him. Because if Biden wins, there will be a 2028 election where we can hopefully find someone better, and I’m not convinced that there will be under Trump.
Four years of Trump came really close to turning this country into a kakistocratic dictatorship. I really don’t want to give him another chance.
there will be a 2028 election where we can hopefully find someone better
I’ve literally had people utter this to me before every single presidential election that I’ve voted in and it’s never come true. Neither party has any incentive to improve things when they’re guaranteed to get votes because “the other guys are boogeymen!”
So when Trump pulls another January 6, but succeeds this time and declares himself president for life, do you think that will make the situation better or worse?
My concern is that he will run again and again until he dies. Ideally if he won this year he could never run again. Obviously he’s a fascist so he will probably try to stay in (again) but man I am not looking forward to the next 20-50 years of him. And I’m guessing he’s going to live forever at this point.
Trump has visibly diminished in the last 4 years, as has his influence. Now he seems like the tail the dog is wagging but before he called himself the dog. I just don’t see him lasting that long
20-50 years??? How young do you think trump is??? 50 years from now he would be 127! 20 years from now he would 97.
We’re not going to have even 5 years of trump left. Even if he wins and serves a full term. I may be wrong, but I don’t imagine him living to 83.
Lol true. My point though was that he is The Thing that will never leave
For a half second I thought you were calling trump the clay rock superhero from the fantastic four.
I may have only thought it for a half second, but I’m still already making popcorn. Because of how entertaining it would be to watch you explain how trump is The Thing.
I hope you have your popcorn! I outsourced the explanation though.
Imagine Donald Trump as The Thing from the Fantastic Four: an oversized, lumbering figure with an unmistakable, gaudy orange, rock-like exterior. His presence is hard to ignore, not just because of his sheer size and brashness but because he bulldozes through political and social norms with little finesse, much like The Thing smashing through walls.
In this form, Trump’s bluntness and tendency to overpower conversations mirror The Thing’s raw physicality. His speeches are repetitive and simplistic, hammering his points home in a manner akin to The Thing’s catchphrase, “It’s clobberin’ time!”—straightforward and unsubtle.
However, just as The Thing struggles with his monstrous appearance, Trump’s public persona is marked by a mix of bravado and thin-skinned sensitivity. His abrasive approach often alienates allies and emboldens critics, making his interactions as rocky as his hypothetical exterior. Both figures are defined by their confrontational nature, but where The Thing’s battles are physical, Trump’s are rhetorical and often divisive.
That’d be quite the feat considering we have the Constitution and Congress. How do you suppose he’d succeed at this considering Trump and Co were basically laughed out of every courtroom when they brought their election fraud cases to court? He doesn’t need to be president for another Jan 6 to happen. He just needs a microphone and a big crowd of pissed off smooth-brains.
Who needs courts when you have a cult of personality, a lot of whom have organized into paramilitary groups?
Even now, the courts are failing to hold him responsible for what he did. They won’t save us. And half of Congress is on his fucking side.
If paramilitary groups are how he seizes control of the government, then it doesn’t really matter whether he was elected or not because you’re talking about outright treason and a civil war, neither of which are predicated on him being elected to office first.
How can you say “who needs courts” when the courts already shot his election fraud nonsense down in every single case they tried to bring? The trial for J6 has barely begun so how can you claim the outcome already? He was already convicted in the NY civil fraud trial.
Maybe you should ask yourself why the guy who’s running against him can’t even be bothered to shape himself up when, as you claim, we’re on the verge of far-right paramilitary groups staging a coup if he doesn’t win? How shitty at your job do you have to be that you can’t even win against that?
You’re preaching to the choir here. Biden is shit. But, again, at least I know he’ll go away in 4 years. Trump is going to try his damnedest not to. He already fucking tried once. And frankly, the fact that it’s been four years and he’s free to try again is proof enough the courts aren’t doing enough to stop him. There’s a reason they’ve been pushing all this stuff until after election.
Open your eyes and stop pretending Trump is normal. In nearly 250 years that this country has existed, nobody has tried to pull the shit he’s tried to pull, and he will try it again.
Trump literally already tried to overturn an election, for fuck’s sake.
Donald did do an insurrection on his way out in 2021. Oh, did you not vote in 2016? Maybe you are technically correct.
There are generally better things happening under democratic rule than republican rule. I get that it can feel small to those of us who want more radical change but there is a difference.
But I agree. Radical change is probably not happening from within the current system. Direct action and external pressure will be needed. But there is still a difference in how tolerant the two parties (and also between intra-party factions) will be of such a movement.
Trump can’t be both “different from everyone else” and “everyone’s worries about the guy are unfounded, he’s just another politician.”
While I know you didn’t say he’s the same, per se, you might as well by comparing alarms that Obama or Romney are going to be forever presidents to the guy literally “joking” about being a forever president that’s taken possibly criminal steps to subvert the results of an election already.
It’s not just the fringe paranoid folks saying “this could be the end of democracy as we know it if Trump wins.”
If Biden wins, then in 2028 he won’t be able to run again, and Trump won’t physically be able to. I’m reasonably confident there will be two “new” choices.
I’m very happy DeSantis seems to have crashed and burned, Christie had his last hurrah, and no one took Ramiswami seriously, but even Sanders’ age is a passing of the torch.
So, will you support Harris, Newsom, or AOC to go up against Abbot?
I’d support AOC but Newsom or Harris are more “status quo” Dems so they’ll probably get all the backing from the party in order to prevent a progressive from getting the nomination once again.
Why on earth would you think democrats would allow for someone better in 2028? Biden’s win will prove that they can continue propping up fascist extremists and you’ll vote for fascist lite.
You’re not describing a strategy, you’re describing a slow death.
Even so, still better than a perpetual Trump dictatorship.
If Trump wins, he will, without a doubt, try again to end American democracy. He did before. And whatever you think of our current situation, at least we have a fucking voice right now.
It’s likely not better though, as the longer we let Dmeocrats play dick-grab with the GOP without actually fighting back tooth and nail (like politician’s like Biden are unwilling to do) the more the GOP is able to use their power in a way that’s concealed.
The reason RvW had a political effect is because it was shocking and too sudden. What will happen if we keep voting the lesser of two evils is people will get more and more acclimated to having their rights stripped away in small ways, rather than witnessing the horror in a way that’s easy to understand.
Even now, in this discussion, it’s difficult for you to see the pattern that’s occurring from the strategy you’re proposing of fear-based voting.
It’s uncertain whether a Trump term will allow for the GOP to enact their fascist take-over in full, but continuing to vote for the same milque-toast democrats is 100% a recipe for fascism because they will never reform on their own, and the general public will accept fascism if it comes slowly. I’m not going to try to tell you how to vote, but just own the consequences when they come and don’t try to blame others.
You seem to still be thinking in terms of Trump doing a term and going away. He won’t. He proved that on 1/6/2021, and his little jokes and musings now only reinforce it.
I have every expectation that, if Trump manages to become President again, he is not leaving that office until he dies. He will undo American democracy to keep his power. He already tried before.
Biden sucks. Democrats suck. You won’t catch me arguing with you there. But Trump is the death of the Republic.
Fear-based politics are worthless to me. That is the reason the GOP treats the Democrats as prey, not a threat.
THEN STOP WALKING INTO THEIR FUCKING JAWS
Literally where we are, right now. The only (slim) chance of getting out is reforming the democratic party and shocking the general public awake.
Your way has been a proven failure, it’s not an option.
So why are you so terrified of Democrats? Seems to me like you’re all about emotion-based politics, including fear.
Lol
I’ll take the lack of an argument as a confirmation that you understand what I said is true. Anyone who’s been alive for more than a single election has witnessed it, it’s pretty undeniable.
Voting for Biden is harm reduction. Not voting is just letting the GOP win and voting for Trump is a dumb idea.
I don’t even expect Democrats to “learn their lesson” by loosing an election, let alone reform democracy.
They made it clear in 2016, they’d rather the Republicans win than give even an INCH to the left of mid right establishment dems.
Hard agree. I’m tired of people saying the only way to avoid fascism is the guy who
-
sidestepped congress multiple times to fund/supply genocide,
-
is pushing legislation to strip leftist orgs of nonprofit status,
-
pushing legislation to make ANY criticism of Israel legally antisemitic so they can strip any college that allows protests of funding and accreditation
-
coming from a party that at the slightest whiff of a challenge had it legally ruled that they do what they want, voters and donors be damned
-
also a party equally complicit in moving the goalposts any time a third party comes close to meeting requirements for inclusion.
America has always been fascist, ruled by a singular corporate party with two wings. The quiet part is out loud now and even prominent democrats and pundits can’t help themselves but break out all the fascist stops on leftists.
When democrats and liberals say “we have to stop fascism” they mean “we have to protect my status quo and the fascism that benefits me.”
It most comes down to maintaining comfort. Liberals have no issue with groups being harmed by state violence from police and other groups when they aren’t the targets. Dems had 4 years to prepare and look forward to what is coming, and the best we have is Joe Biden standing between the status quo and Trump’s full-blown fascism.
They like to ignore that dems have had a few opportunities with the trifecta to actually codify these issues and enact stronger policies against the threats we face now (that were apparent at the time) but the problem is democrats don’t WANT to lock those basic rights issues down because they need the existential threat. Their only platform for like 20 years now has been “not those guys” so if they actually codified (for example) abortion or even better added it to an amendment - They wouldn’t be able to push this narrative that if you don’t vote for milquetoast mid right Biden then you’re actually WORSE than the fascists and you hate women and you’re handing their freedom to “”“the right”“” on a silver platter.
America has always been a single corporate party system, and both wings of that party are pushing for fascism because it’s the end goal of any capitalist system. It’s just a fight between “marginalized folk are slowly and quietly suppressed so my life continues as normal” fascism or “quiet part out loud day one which I would have to acknowledge” fascism.
-
People say we can find someone better next time and still vote for yell for everyone to vote for every Neoliberal like Biden when they show up on the ballot. The lesser evil route is what got us here now.
The alternative, right now, is still potentially never having another election.
If that is the case, then I guess it is over if Democracy rests on the shoulder of Joe Biden.
How so?
“Where we are now” is nowhere near as bad as things could be. Nazi Germany, Mussolini’s Italy, and Franco’s Spain all happened. Equally bad things could happen here, and in fact they have happened here. Remember how half this country’s economy was based on chattel slavery and it led to a bloody civil war? And how there was a genocide of the indigenous population? Is that what you want? Because that’s the kind of shit we’re in for if we let the fascists win.
The same guy who unilaterally banned bump stocks with an executive order being hosted by the NRA shows how much the NRA actually cares about the second amendment.
Are you claiming the “take the guns first” guy isn’t a strong 2A supporter? Say it isn’t so!
Amazing how little Republicans care when the person saying that has an R next to their name
Bump stocks and all other focuses on rate of fire are more or less a sacrificial lamb. It provides a strong distinction between “Heh, stupid fucking loser thinking ‘assault rifles’ are actually a thing” and “semi-automatic versions of rifles specifically designed for and used by military forces”
When the reality is that basically every military strong discourages the use of full auto by anyone whose job is not to carry a machine gun of some form. But, because that AR-15 you bought at Walmart doesn’t have full auto, it isn’t a military weapon.
And because it is our god given right to carry an m249 everywhere we go, it is a horrible insult to the gun nuts of the world to lose their full auto capabilities so we should all feel warm and fuzzy and stop trying to stop kids from getting shot.
That’s because full auto rifles*, are typically seen as wasting limited ammunition. A modern military unit isn’t likely to encounter a bunched together group of 30-50 soft targets where a full auto rifle would be most effective…unlike a mass shooter indiscriminately targeting a crowded concert.
*Rifles, not machine guns. I’m well aware of the utility of squad machine gunners, talking guns, etc.
First off: modern militaries DO get some nice mass executions a lot more often than one would expect. Well worth doing some reading up on that.
Second: Automatic fire is still horrible for that. If your bullets have a high degree of penetration then you are, generally mortally, wounding multiple civilians per shot and are better at aimed shots at clusters of women and children. Or your bullets don’t have a high degree of penetration and you mostly just light up one or two kindergartners whose corpses take up most of the shots. At which point you are, again, better off at firing off a bunch of snap shots.
Third: The actual reason militaries have automatic weapons is for situations where aiming is difficult or less important. Machine gunners at the squad level are expected to fire very short controlled bursts (otpimally single shots) to actually suppress a target when trying to “keep some heads down” so that the maneuver group can flank. Or they are engaging at significantly longer ranges (which is why machine guns often have a larger caliber round than the rifles) where a short burst increases the likelihood of hitting a target. And while it is mostly out of favor, many infantry rifles had burst fire capability or even simultaneous fire capability (either with two barrels or a ridiculously high rate of fire burst) to increase the likelihood of infantry hitting a target by spending more on ammo than training (before realizing it significantly increases the cost of the weapons AND requires more training so that the high schoolers can maintain their weapons in the field). But modern optics, and a decade or two of being the only people with NVGs, rendered that obsolete.
This guy massacres
Yeah bullshit, these assholes don’t give a fuck about your rights or mine, they care about their power, money, and influence.
“If the Biden regime gets four more years, they are coming for your guns,” Trump railed.
Really pulling out the “greatest hits” with this piece here. He’s got nothing else.
‘Member when Trump said he’d take guns without due process? Like he literally said that.
“regime”
He really used that word? Wow…
I said the same thing. Heavy eye roll.
Removed by mod
Removed by mod
Removed by mod
Removed by mod
Removed by mod
This is partly just blowback from everyone agreeing to use different vocabulary for governments we like vs governments we don’t. We never should have tolerated the blatant propaganda of the US having an “administration” while our adversaries have “regimes”.
There are lots of other examples of journalists using loaded vocabulary this way. Most of them escape me at the moment but I can think of a few, like “freedom fighters” vs “insurgents” or “terrorists”, and “police action” or “peacekeeping force” vs “occupation” or “invasion”.
I support a life-term prisondency for him.
Ok hear me out…
Trump wants to be a dictator, sure. He was a terrible president and it would be a disaster if he was reelected.
Now that you know my position, listen to what he said at the NRA convention. He wasn’t saying ‘hey maybe I’ll serve 3 terms’… what he was saying was ‘if I get elected in 2024 then would that be two terms or three terms? Because we all know I was elected to a second term back in 2020 and so even though Biden is acting president, I am in my second term now, so a win in 2024 is a third term.’
The man is an idiot and rambled incoherently throughout the NRA speech. He reiterated his usual batch of racist xenophobic statements and bragged about his uncle at MIT… he is a one trick pony and there is plenty to poke fun at.
Would he tout the idea of a third term for himself? Sure! Is that what he did in this case, not precisely.
Oh you’re right. I guess I forgot one could be that stupid
Exactly. Of course, by putting forth the belief that 2020-2024 was his second term, he should just bow out since he has also said he would not want to challenge the 22nd amendment.
If he gets even one we are doomed
Removed by mod
Removed by mod
What a doozie of a way to start a sentence…
So let’s see here, Trump is 77 years old, but will be 78 at the time of election. Let’s just add eight years and we get 86… yep he’s angling for president for life.
Yep, and his brain will be mush, so who knows who’d really be running the show.
Will be? It already is.
Removed by mod
Nah, rfk was able to sustain it for a little bit. In Trump’s brain it would file refugee status and emmigrate.
Not before he has it deported.
It already is mush.
He’s angling for hereditary dictatorship.
But Biden is too old already. SMH. Maybe he’ll get sucked out of a faulty window in his plane. Edit: that was a /s people.
Removed by mod
Yes sorry
Republicans hate the constitution, so… this checks out.
noted fascist is a fascist, more at 5
Guys I’m starting to think that this Trump fellow might not like democracy
Lock him the fuck up already
that’s how dictators dictate
Removed by mod
22nd amendment was passed as a direct response to FDR’s four terms. But surely you knew that and are just being daft.
Removed by mod
Removed by mod
Removed by mod
To be honest I think Clinton or Obama would have been president for life if two term limits weren’t imposed.
FDR is why there’s an amendment prohibiting it. He’s speaking openly of violating the constitution. Hey “patriots”, isn’t that supposed to be a thing that makes you mad?
I’m too young to chime in on Clinton, but I can see it with Obama for sure.
Obama was lucky to win his second term. His approval rating was already underwater and only Romney’s own unlikeability saved him.
Either way, this was a man who had functionally checked out back in 2014. He didn’t want a third term.
And Trump is even more unlikable than Romney. No one has really been running terribly likeable candidates lately.
And Trump is even more unlikable than Romney
Not according to the last two election vote-counts. That’s been a problem for the GOP for a while. Anyone they throw up against Trump is too much of a corporate stuffed shirt or hick blowhard to top Trump’s NYC Diva Energy. He’s got a cult of personality in a way guys like DeSantis and Cruz and Romney could only dream of.
It cuts both ways, though. Sure, it gets his fans out in record numbers, but it also gets people who hate him voting in record numbers, too. I don’t think we’d have had that 2020 turnout for Joe Biden without Trump.
Sure, it gets his fans out in record numbers, but it also gets people who hate him voting in record numbers, too.
When Bidencrats are concentrated in a few large states and Trumpies are diffused across a larger number of pivotal swing states, the electoral math favors the Republicans. And as Biden’s own approval ratings crumble, people who would normally turn out to hate-vote against Trump are demoralized.
I don’t think we’d have had that 2020 turnout for Joe Biden without Trump.
Trump won more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016. And Biden only clinched the nomination by 40,000 votes across three swing states (all three of which he’s currently trailing Trump in today). He was running a tighter margin than Hillary enjoyed in 2016.
Combine this with Republicans ramping up disenfranchisement efforts, fascist policing of minority communities, a chronically struggling economy, and a President whose declining health inhibits his ability to campaign, and I seriously doubt Biden will see 2020 turnout a second time. Meanwhile, Trump is once again poised to break GOP turnout records.
Yeah, he barely lost to Joe Biden. Biden vs Obama popularity isn’t even a contest.
Obama was marginally more popular than Biden back in 2016, when Biden was significantly more popular than Hillary.
But in 2024, Idk. Neither of them have aged well.
Don’t know about for life, but a pretty long tenure like Angela Merkle, yeah I could see that
Not the first time he’s done this.
That is just another article about the exact same incident…
My mistake. Meant to post this link.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/18/politics/donald-trump-third-term-2024/index.html
Ah, yes, much better. And also more unambiguously directly a call for a third real term, whereas this time it’s plausible he could be claiming that 2020-2024 was his ‘second term’ already.
Man, all those guns, and no one shot him in the face multiple times. What a shame. Damn shame.
That would never happen: These brave 2A champions have completely banned firearms from these conventions for security reasons.
It’s my biggest gripe against the left. Imagine betting your life on a game of football where one side is playing no contact tag rules and the other is playing full lethality death ball rules. We’ll sit here and talk about how they’re not playing fair, but pride parades won’t march with guns. We’ll cry about how horrid it is that they force their religion into our schools but we won’t use the same system to fight it.
The left will die for their beliefs, but the right will kill for them. Only one of those methods leaves survivors.
As the saying goes, “go far enough left and you get your guns back.” It’s not leftists clutching pearls over “gun violence;” it’s privileged centrist liberals (a.k.a. MLK’s “white moderates”) doing that.
Lol clutching pearls… What a laughably terrible way to describe people who are often burying their children or schoolmates and trying to prevent others from having to do the same.
