Trump Says He Has 'Right' to Run for Third Term: 'They Cheated Us' | Hacker News Reader

Trump Says He Has 'Right' to Run for Third Term: 'They Cheated Us'

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Nah, lol. The Constitution says "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice". So even if, hypothetically, he got cheated in 2020, the fact remains that he has already been elected twice. If it turns out that he has actually been elected three times and got cheated out of one of those times, he still clearly can't become President again.

Trump himself seems to acknowledge this but seems to be making the argument of "it's not fair I got cheated, they should make it up to me by letting me run again".

Well, no. The Constitution is very clear. If you want to run again you're gonna need a Constitutional amendment.

I wonder how much of it is his incessant spite vs trolling vs saying something to see himself in the news cycle

Everyone has been saying he can’t do most of the things he does on a regular basis. I won’t rule out a 4th term, either.

I think there are many, many more things people think he can't do that he hasn't actually been able to do. The number of things people think he can't do and that he has done is tiny compared to the number of things people think he can't do and that he actually can't do.

The vast majority of things that Trump does are things that people actually think he can do.

I mean, it is theoretically possible that he becomes an absolute dictator. But so many people would have to change their minds for that to happen that in practice it is very unlikely.

> But so many people would have to change their minds for that to happen that in practice it is very unlikely.

In his previous administration there were at least some checks and balances. This administration is completely unethical in all kind of levels. Frankly I won't be holding my breath.

The system has plenty of checks and balances that are outside of his administration.

The courts have ruled against a number of this administration's actions, that's the "checks" in checks and balances at work here. His power is not absolute despite what you may read in many HN comments.

EDIT: And if you really think his power is absolute, then how is Kilmar Abrego Garcia still in the US?

Constitutions can be changed by other means. See Saddam, Gadhafi etc. Trump's story is heading in a similar direction.

No, it's not.

if you occupy the office of vice president and something happens to the unfortunate president elect, i heard the VP is acting prez. imnot sure of the particulars, but im thinking about a case where someone having been elected for two terms, becomes a VP, and supersedes the elected president, due to terrible circumstances.

lol. Even among a party crowded with self-serving grifters and imbeciles, who would be insane enough to nominate Trump as VP? The mind boggles at the thought.

I would assume that even if theoretically Trump did serve as VP, in the event of the President's death he wouldn't be able to step in and they would just go up the line of succession. He would remain VP indefinitely.

I assume that's how it's supposed to work. Who knows how it would actually work? SCOTUS might just decide it's fine because the Constitution doesn't explicitly say otherwise, or something.

The 12th amendment text suggests he couldn't be VP because he is ineligible to be elected president under the 22nd amendment, and the 12th requires the VP to be eligible to be president. But that's about elections.

He could be appointed to the VP, potentially, but that would mean the Republicans would have to put up a ticket with the intent of the elected VP resigning so the elected President can nominate Trump as his new VP. Then get Congress to confirm Trump, which would require a Republican majority in both houses. The new VP would have to be onboard with this, or not onboard but have so many skeletons in their closet that a resignation can be forced. Which would make them a bad running mate and drag the ticket down.

that looks like it could double time as a check list for installing a president.. it really does make logical sense, that a VP should be eligible for presidency on some basis, as the position would potentially require stepping up to a presidency.

The law isn’t self servicing. What the Constitution says only matters if it is actually enforced, and whether anyone is willing and able to do that is very much unclear.

It absolutely is. If what the Constitution says doesn't matter, there is no longer any legal basis for Presidential authority, and Trump is just some guy squatting in the White House getting away with whatever he's allowed to get away with whether he's elected or not.

You kinda reinforced the point of GP. The Constitution has no direct bearing on Trump being a squatter in the White House or not, it's the people around him that determines that.

The only factor the Constitution plays is that the people around him have more or less decided to try to follow what the Constitution says. If they decide to not to that, well, then what the Constitution says doesn't matter.

Perhaps I misunderstood. Given the nature of Presidential power and the simplicity of the 22nd Amendment, it's about as close as a law can be to self-executing in the literal as well as legal sense short of a magic spell compelling performance through its own inherent power.

If you want to nitpick, the claim that Trump was elected President in 2020 is the opposite of what the 22nd Amendment would require for a third term. Better to argue that the 2016 election was illegitimate and therefore no one was elected President during Trump's first term, which if true would allow him to be elected a second time in 2028 without violating the letter of the 22nd Amendment.

It's not the people around him, it's the states. The US is somewhat unusual in that American federalism treats each state as inherently sovereign, but limited by the Constitution.

What the Constitution says matters. Enforcement just might have a blood price.

Can we also not forget that he did NOT get cheated? He lost the election, and is incapable of producing proof of wrongdoing because there aren’t any.

He’s a dangerous lunatic.

I don't think anyone here is claiming that he got cheated.

I feel like debating whether he even can run for a third term makes the premise that he got cheated on accepted. Pretty sure there’s some kind of manipulation in there to make people forget that he lost 2020

> I feel like debating whether he even can run for a third term

hax0ron3 didn't debate it, though. They said, unequivocally, that Trump can't be president a third time. From the top comment in this thread:

>> he still clearly can't become President again

Where's the debate? It's certainly not in that comment.

>I feel like debating whether he even can run for a third term makes the premise that he got cheated on accepted.

Only if the readers are incapable of understanding hypotheticals. Also, like Jtsummers said, I'm not even debating it.

Sorry, when I was talking about manipulation I was not implying that you specifically were trying to do that. I just feel when reading some media that the kind of "2020 election theft" bullshit gets less and less challenged every time it gets thrown in the air. Not saying you’re defending it, I’m just tired of Trump as a whole I guess…

I find that my attention gets drawn to the opposite phenomenon: it is very common for mainstream newspapers to call Trump's election fraud claims false right as they describe those claims. I mean sentences like "Trump falsely claimed that the election...". This always draws my attention because the same newspapers do not usually do this when public figures claim something false, so it sticks out like a sore thumb. I don't think the election was stolen from Trump, but when newspapers do this it makes me feel like they're treating me like an idiot who has to be verbally manipulated into thinking that the election wasn't stolen from Trump. Rather annoying.

I’d say there’s a difference between "claims" and "falsely claims", adding "falsely" when the claim has been debunked times and times is proper reporting.

I do worry a little for the posterity of it. "You got beat" is true. You haven't produced a shred of evidence otherwise, you ugly boil upon America.

What constitution?

Trump can always copy the trick his boss in Moscow used to defeat the term limits.

No. No. NO. That is not how any of this works.

First: Trump lost in 2020. He lost. He didn't have it taken from him, he lost. I don't know if he's too much of a narcissist to admit that, or too surrounded by yes men to actually hear the truth, but he lost.

But second, even (in an alternate universe) if he had been cheated in 2020, what he gets to make up for it is the right to run in 2024. That's it. There is no actual logic (legal or otherwise) where he gets a third term on top of this one.

No. Just no. In fact, not only no, but "no" with some other words that I shouldn't say in front of the impressionable youngsters here on HN.

If he tries, and the courts don't stop him, it's going to be a civil war. (Or it won't, which arguably might be worse.)

He seems to be a big fan of Putin so he'll probably swap places and be VP to someone.

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