On Monday, Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s far-right National Rally party, was convicted of embezzlement. She has been barred from running for public office for five years unless she wins an appeal of her conviction.
Jair Bolsonaro, former president of Brazil, is awaiting trial for an alleged attempted coup after he lost the 2022 presidential election. Two years ago, he was banned from running for office until 2030.
Meanwhile in America, a convicted felon is talking again about circumventing the Constitution to run for a third term as president.
President Trump says he’s not kidding. Believe him.
In an interview on Sunday with NBC News, Trump returned to a familiar but alarming fixation — his desire to stay in office regardless of constitutional constraints. Out of one side of his mouth, he claimed he was “focused on the current,” meaning his cruel and destructive second term. But when asked whether he wanted to stay in office beyond Jan. 20, 2029, he said, “I’m not joking.”
Then Trump added — ominously for anyone who remembers what happened on Jan. 6, 2021 — “There are methods [by] which you could do it.”
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Running for a third presidential term would require repealing the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution which clearly states, “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, 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 President more than once.”
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There are no “methods” for him to be elected to the presidency beyond amending the Constitution, which would require a two-thirds majority vote in both the House and Senate or a constitutional convention requested by two-thirds of state legislatures. Any change would also have to be ratified by 38 states.
Some have suggested circuitous means to secure a third Trump term. Most common is a scenario where current Vice President JD Vance would top a 2028 Republican ticket with Trump as his running mate, then step down to let Trump become president again. Those people should acquaint themselves with the 12th Amendment, which states “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.”
That disqualifies Trump.
But after years of playdates with people like President Vladimir Putin of Russia and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary, Trump is ticking every box of authoritarianism. Neuter Congress and attempt to consolidate executive power? Check. Attack the autonomy of the media and the judicial system and stifle dissent? Check. Threaten to annex sovereign countries? Check.
Eradicate term limit laws? Not yet, but Trump and some Republicans are already working on it. In January, Republican Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee introduced a House joint resolution to amend the Constitution and allow Trump’s election to a third term.
Some Democrats believe this is Trump’s attempt to create a distraction from his violations of the rule of law, disregard of basic human rights, and proposed tariffs that would punish Americans and smother the economy. But no one should ignore comments about subverting the Constitution from a man who in his first term incited a deadly insurrection in an attempt to overturn the presidential election that he lost in 2020.
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Trump often sounds more interested in reigning as a king than of serving as a two-term president. When he says there are “methods” to holding onto the presidency, he could be speaking about stealing control over elections as much as skirting constitutional restraints.
Last week Trump signed a legally questionable executive order that would give him unprecedented oversight of federal elections; it would require people to show government-issued proof of citizenship to register to vote in a federal election, mandate that mail-in ballots arrive by Election Day, and give the unelected Elon Musk and his tech rats access to state voter rolls. States that do not comply, Trump said, could lose federal funding.
Of course, executive orders are not laws. But they are a clear view into how Trump wants to expand his powers and impact election outcomes by disenfranchising millions of eligible voters by any means necessary.
And then there’s this: In January, Jack Smith, the former special counsel who charged Trump with multiple felonies related to 2020 presidential election interference, wrote in his final report that if not “for Trump’s election and imminent return to the presidency, the office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial.”
Trump sees the presidential seal as an immunity shield from prosecution.
Call Trump’s talk of a third term a distraction, but understand there are probably unseen wheels already in motion to make it happen. Trump has as little regard for the truth as he does the Constitution. But when he says he’s not joking about remaining in the White House beyond his current tenure, he should be taken at his word.
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Renée Graham is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at renee.graham@globe.com.
