I keep hearing “jokes” (and now more serious statements) about Trump’s third term & how they’ve got ways to achieve it … I think there are:
- Run as VP – I’m sure they’d call it something else to avoid “insulting” dude, but this has the advantage of all the campaigning and fund raising fun. Pres steps down, VP assumes presidency. Wasn’t elected as president, and I’m sure there would be a lot of legal challenges to clarify the generally accepted belief that a former president cannot be VP. But it’s going to end up as a court decision.
- Get voted in as speaker of the house – risks not winning the house, but you were absolutely not elected to the office of president. And I don’t see anything in the constitution or law that explicitly states a two term president cannot be in the line of succession.
- Have a cohort run on the “I do what he tells me to” platform. I’ve long thought we could start to move away from representative democracy to technology-facilitated direct democracy by having candidates run on the platform of a platform that allows constituents to vote on every bill. I, your so-called representative, will vote in whatever way the voters say to vote. There’s no law about how elected officials make decisions – both taking input from direct voting of the masses or just doing whatever the cannot-run-for-office-again former president says are your decision.
Now, if I were trying to be a three-term president, I might combine #3 with being elected as speaker of the house. Now I control two branches of the government — legislation isn’t coming to the floor unless I OK it, and I tell the acting president to sign it.
