Presidents from both parties have long recognized the importance of the United States having apolitical military. To mix partisanship and the armed forces is to undermine foundational American principles.

It was against this backdrop that Donald Trump addressed U.S. troops stationed at the Al Udeid Air Base in Doha, where he spoke to uniformed troops as if they were his supporters at a campaign rally. “There’s nobody been stronger than the military in terms of backing us, nobody. So I just want to thank you all,” the president said — propriety and American norms be damned.

But that’s not all he said.

“As you know, we won three elections, OK?” Trump told the troops. “And some people want us to do a fourth. I don’t know, I’ll have to think about that.”

He proceeded to talk up his caps that feature the words “Trump 2028,” which he referred to as “the hottest hat.”

For now, let’s not dwell too long on how wildly inappropriate it was to deliver partisan remarks to active-duty troops on a U.S. military base as if this were some kind of MAGA event. Let’s also brush past that Trump had no business peddling his election lies and conspiracy theories in such a setting.

Let’s instead focus on the president’s suggestion to U.S. troops that he’s considering an electoral plan in which he might betray constitutional law.

My hope was that we were past this. Indeed, after telling NBC News is March that he was “not joking” about pursuing a possible third term, the president sounded a very different note during a “Meet the Press” interview two weeks ago, telling host Kristen Welker, “[I]t’s something that, to the best of my knowledge, you’re not allowed to do. … This is not something I’m looking to do. I’m looking to have four great years and turn it over to somebody.”

In the same interview, he added, “I’ll be an eight-year president, I’ll be a two-term president.”

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That seemed to close the door. Two weeks later, before assembled U.S. troops, the Republican nudged the door back open, saying he’ll have to “think about” whether to run again in 2028.

In reality, there is nothing to think about, and what Trump keeps referring to is plainly not legal. The 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says, “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”

The incumbent Republican continues to suggest he sees some hidden wiggle room in the phrasing — and he apparently thought it’d be wise to take such a message to American military personnel.

The latest national Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll found that 80% of Americans do not want Trump to serve a third term, but if the president doesn’t much care about constitutional law, he’s even less likely to care about public attitudes.

I won’t pretend to know where this is headed or the degree to which the president is prepared to defy constitutional law. But Scott Cummings, a professor of legal ethics at the UCLA School of Law, made a comment on “The Rachel Maddow Show” in March that stood out for me.

Commenting on autocracies around the world that have consolidated power, Cummings noted that in none of these countries “do leaders do all the things that Trump is doing, take aim at all of these independent institutions, and then just walk away.” Rather, the professor added, authoritarians take these steps because they intend “to stay in power permanently.”