The Trump White House seems to have a habit of doing or saying things that sound horrific, then taking them back as if they meant something else. Not even the little things – the last time this happened before Trump did it again yesterday was 8 days ago, when Elon Musk gave an absolutely blatant Nazi salute at the inauguration ceremony, then pretended it was somehow taken out of context.
However, when it comes from the president, it sounds a little more ominous than anyone else. There are times when I lose nights’ sleep over things Trump says, then pretends he was joking. Remember when he asked his old Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, if they could shoot protesters during the George Floyd protests?
I’m sure Pete Hegseth’s answer would be very different from Esper’s, and it seriously makes me think.
But yesterday, Trump said what’s probably a favorite thing, at least among his die-hard supporters: He once again hinted that he’s seriously thinking about running for president again.
As it stands now, that’s certainly not something he can do. The 22nd Amendment prevents it, and leaves nothing to the imagination. Or at least to yours or mine. It leaves a lot to Trump’s imagination, and the imagination of his voters and even some Republican lawmakers.
Just a few days ago, Representative Andy Ogles actually introduced another amendment that would remove the 22nd Amendment and allow Trump to run in 2028.
Perhaps emboldened by that legislation, Trump said just that again yesterday to a room full of House Republicans, even directly joking with the third most powerful person in Washington, D.C., House Speaker Mike Johnson.
“I’ve raised a lot of money for the next race that I think I can use for myself, but I’m not 100% sure,” he told GOP lawmakers in Doral, Florida. “I think I’m not allowed to run for re-election. Am I allowed to run for re-election?” Turning to the House speaker, Trump said, “Mike, I better not involve you in that.”
Donald Trump is well aware that he’s not allowed to run for re-election. But it still makes me think.
See, Trump also believes he can change a different amendment of the Constitution — the 14th Amendment — with a stroke of his pen. In fact, he tried to do just that on the first day of his new administration by announcing he would end birthright citizenship.
It’s literally a constitutional right, and they think they can just say it’s not there anymore. And the truth of the matter is, if a judge hadn’t already blocked the order, if there weren’t already lawsuits over it, he could have gotten away with it.
So every time Trump “jokes” about running for re-election, it seems to me that he’s still testing the waters to see if there’s actually a desire for it among the people who could help him get elected, and if there’s a way he can accomplish it.
I believe Trump can convince his voters that he’s qualified — apart from the fact that they’d lick the peanut butter off between his toes if he told them to — because he’s been so successful at spreading the lie that the 2020 election was stolen.
So in Trump’s mind, he’s won two elections (even if he didn’t win a majority of the popular vote in either election), so he’s an easy one. But he should also be allowed to “complete” the one that was stolen from him. Again, that’s his perspective, not mine.
It’s not a big stretch to think that it will be easy to convince his voters, who are already not known as the smartest people filling out ballots, that his way of thinking makes sense.
Then, of course, they can entangle everything in court cases. They can delay decisions. They can use the White House for propaganda, as they did the whole time before.
And if the news media acts the way they did during the 2024 campaign, they will treat this like a perfectly normal candidacy, as if he’s just another person running for president. After all, they’ve rarely questioned whether a man who has already been convicted of a felony and found liable for sexual abuse before 2024 should be able to run.
You may have already seen the story in the news that he said so again. But give it some thought, and see if it doesn’t bother you as much as it does me.
