President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign is eager to present Donald Trump as a radical Republican who is hostile toward legal limits, constitutional law, democracy, and institutional norms. To an incredible degree, the former president is providing his Democratic rivals plenty of fodder to work with.
Politico reported over the weekend, for example:
Former President Donald Trump on Saturday floated the idea of a third term if he wins in November. “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?” Trump quipped at the National Rifle Association annual meeting, speaking before a crowd of gun rights supporters.
The video of the comments suggested he wasn’t simply joking around.
“Are we going to be two terms or three terms?”
— Kelsie Taggart (@kelsientaggart) May 18, 2024
It's hard to tell if Trump is confused or just speaking out his dictatorial dreams. pic.twitter.com/HbU701LF7k
Alas, this was not an isolated comment. Five years ago this month, Trump retweeted Jerry Falwell Jr. — before his ignominious fall from grace — arguing that the president deserves a six-year first term “as payback for time stolen” by the investigation into the Russia scandal. Trump echoed Falwell’s sentiment in a pair of tweets an hour later, writing that nefarious forces “have stolen two years of my (our) Presidency (Collusion Delusion) that we will never be able to get back.”
A year later, as Election Day 2020 drew closer, the Republican started pushing the line with greater frequency — and apparent sincerity.
At a campaign stop in Arizona in August 2020, for example, Trump was greeted by supporters chanting, “Four more years.” Before the then-president could even begin his remarks in earnest, he endorsed the chant and added some related thoughts: “Thank you very much. And you know, considering that we caught President Obama and sleepy Joe Biden, spying on our campaign — treason — we’ll probably be entitled to another four more years after that.”
The day before his event in Arizona, Trump suggested to a Minnesota audience that he intends to serve more than two terms, adding in Wisconsin, “We are going to win four more years. And then after that we’ll go for another four years, because they spied on my campaign. We should get a re-do of four years.”
It was around this time when CNN’s Daniel Dale highlighted the Republican’s shift in tone: “Trump has modified how he talks about staying in office beyond two terms. He used to frame it as a pure media-trolling, libs-triggering joke; this week, he’s been offering an actual reason why he should get more time in office.”
I came to a similar conclusion. There were countless instances in which Trump would headline a rally, and when there was a bit of a lull, he’d start making random comments about serving three or more terms, the Constitution be damned. It was obvious that he was trying to generate outrage — he’d even point at journalists and tell the crowd something like, “That line drives them crazy.”
But there came a point in 2020 at which Trump sounded like someone who felt entitled to more than two terms. His reasoning, of course, was hopelessly bonkers. In reality, no one “spied on” his campaign. Neither Barack Obama nor Joe Biden committed “treason.” Presidents who go through scandals don’t get additional time added to their tenures as some kind of reparation. And yet, here we are, watching the presumptive GOP nominee continue to talk up the idea, years later. I can appreciate why many will simply shrug their shoulders in response to comments like the one Trump made at the NRA event. The Constitution’s 22nd Amendment prevents a president from seeking a third term, and there’s nothing he can do about it. But the Republican’s ongoing preoccupation with this idea not only serves as a timely reminder about Trump’s hostility toward our political system, it also raises questions anew about whether he intends to surrender power in the event that voters return him to the White House. This is especially true in light of the pending criminal charges that might not be adjudicated before Election Day 2024. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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