Confused Fascist Is ‘Not Sure’ If He’s ‘Allowed to Run Again’
He's not—at least as of January 28, 2025, at 2:03 p.m. But, in case you missed it, a House Republican has already introduced a proposal that would allow Trump to run for a third term.
It’s been a head-spinning eight days since Trump’s inauguration and, between executive orders, deportations, the global erosion of reproductive rights, and, as of Monday, a pause on all federal grants and loans (?????), Trump and the GOP are throwing out little (big) cute (worrying) jokes (threats) about Trump serving a third—or even fourth!—term.
“I’ve raised a lot of money for the next race that I assume I can’t use for myself, but I’m not 100 percent sure,” Trump told House Republicans in a speech on Monday night in Florida. “I think I’m not allowed to run again.”
He then looked to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who used to be a constitutional lawyer, to say: “Am I allowed to run again? Mike, I better not get you involved in that argument.” Johnson laughed and said nothing…which seems to be his only setting.
Trump to House Republicans at his Doral club: “I’ve raised a lot of money for the next race that I assume I can’t use for myself, but I’m not 100 percent sure. I think I’m not allowed to run again. I’m not sure.” pic.twitter.com/8sbez44aK3
At a victory rally in Las Vegas on Saturday, Trump further “joked” that it’d be the “greatest honor of my life” to serve “not once, but twice – or three times or four times.” He then backtracked to say he was just trying to troll the “fake news.” After winning the election in November, Trump also told House Republicans, “I suspect I won’t be running again—unless you do something.”
And one of those House Republicans heard him loud and clear. On Friday, Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) introduced a resolution to the 22nd Amendment stating, “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than three times, nor be elected to any additional term after being elected to two consecutive terms, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”
Note how it specifies that a person can’t be elected “after being elected to two consecutive terms,” which would ensure Bush or Obama couldn’t run again. This resolution literally only applies to Trump.
The 22nd Amendment was ratified in 1951 after Franklin D. Roosevelt served an insane four terms from 1933 to 1945. But if you’ve ever heard of the Equal Rights Amendment, amending the U.S. Constitution is usually pretty difficult. (Or maybe it’s only difficult when women’s rights are involved, who knows!) The proposed legislation needs to pass both the House and the Senate with a two-thirds majority. Currently, Republicans hold 53 seats (out of 100) in the Senate and only a three-person majority in the House. So Ogles’ proposal won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. However, at this point—especially since the Democrats have all seemingly gone on a nice, long vacation—I have no idea what will happen during the midterms.
