President Trump Holds Cabinet Meeting
In MAGA-land, grievance is disguised as logic (Picture: Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
It’s funny which bits of the Constitution are taken seriously in America.
When a young Ruth Bader Ginsburg demanded equal pay for equal work in the US Supreme Court, she was initially told the Constitution doesn’t mention ‘women’ or ‘sex’ – so tough luck.
When classrooms full of children were gunned down, multiple times, defenders of the Second Amendment insisted the Founders were clear: the right to bear arms is sacrosanct.
But now, as Donald Trump and his allies talk up the idea of him having a third term in the White House, suddenly, we’re told that the 22nd Amendment, which unequivocally states ‘no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice’ is open to interpretation.
On Kamala Harris’s campaign last year, I repeatedly warned about three things that would happen if Trump took office again: he would criminalise abortion, abandon Ukraine, and scrap the democratic process.
Trump To Target Ticket Scalping, Fees With New Executive Order
Former advisors talk openly about Trump being ‘restored’ (Picture: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In debates with everyone from Trump fanboy Nigel Farage to White House advisor Sebastian Gorka, I was dismissed as dramatic, alarmist, and out of my depth.
When I raised alarms about Project 2025 – the utterly chilling blueprint for authoritarian rule written largely by former Trump officials – I was told by Gorka it had ‘nothing to do with him.’
And yet, here we are – just 70 days into his second term, and already a third of women of reproductive age live under abortion bans. We all saw the sickening scenes with Zelensky in the White House. And at lightning speed, Trump has already enacted an estimated 42% of Project 2025.
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Now, the idea of a Trump third term isn’t a punchline anymore – it’s a plan. I’ve been in rooms with strategists, overheard campaign staff, and studied these unhinged proposals more than I care to admit.
‘But how?’ I hear incredulous readers screaming.
Well, the theory from right-wing voices is simple: yes, they concede, the Constitution lays out that no one shall be elected president more than twice. But it says nothing about succession.
Trump, the theory goes, could run as vice president in 2028 – perhaps alongside his current VP, JD Vance. If they win, Vance could be sworn in as Commander-in-Chief and then resign, allowing Trump to assume the presidency through the line of succession.
This isn’t a legal argument – or one that makes much sense. But in MAGA-land, grievance is disguised as logic.
Steve Bannon – a former chief strategist to Trump who was convicted for defying a subpoena related to the January 6 Capitol riot investigation, and pled guilty to fraud – has floated the idea of ‘four more years after the next four.’
Former advisors talk openly about Trump being ‘restored’. Republican lawmakers table bills to ‘repeal the 22nd.’ At Trump rallies, I’ve seen T-shirts printed with ‘Trump 2024. 2028. 2032.’
Many assumed this was a reference to his children standing, or a joke.
But now, they are preparing for Trump to complete over a decade in the Oval Office.
President Trump Departs The White House En Route To Bedminster, New Jersey
This is how democracies slip (Picture: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Trump is surrounded by more loyalists and fewer checks and balances than ever before. The ‘grown-ups in the room’ (I use that term loosely) from his first term are long gone. This administration is stacked with MAGA loyalists who see constitutional norms as optional.
If they think they can force a third term – through lawsuits, executive orders, or sheer chaos – believe me, they will.
The movement isn’t trying to win on policy, governance, or compromise but through sheer brute force. They believe might is right and they’re high on power. Their plan isn’t to govern. It’s to outlast, outmaneuver, and outlive any opposition to its poisonous agenda.
This is how democracies slip: not always with tanks in the streets, but with technicalities, semantics, and very serious men in suits saying, ‘It’s actually more complicated than that.’
In Britain, we’ve been used to believing that America has institutions too sacred, a constitution too set in stone, to be broken. But opposition leadersin the US – especially those working to stop this – are under no such illusion.
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The courts are politicised. Congress is broken. State legislatures are in hock to Trump. A President who tried to overturn an election and incited an insurrection is not only not in jail – he’s been re-elected.
We need to stop treating the Trump third term as hypothetical. The groundwork is being laid right now. And from where I’m sitting – just like I predicted nationwide bans on abortion and betraying Ukraine at every turn – it’s terrifyingly plausible.
For those watching from abroad, don’t make the mistake of thinking this is America’s problem alone. We know what can happen when authoritarianism gathers pace.
In the UK, we aren’t powerless.
Rebuilding and strengthening our European alliances are essential in countering America’s democratic slip ‘n’ slide.
So the next time you hear talk of Trump’s third term, believe it. They’re not joking. They’re not testing the waters. They are planning for a third term.
And if you think the Constitution will save America from it – well, you haven’t been paying attention.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Ross.Mccafferty@metro.co.uk.
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