2 Terms Won’t Satisfy Trump

Donald Trump, the man who launched a global trade war, has brought about significant changes in the international situation, and few countries have been able to adjust. Fortunately, he has scaled back somewhat to focus on dealing with China with a carrot and stick approach. However, his mediation of the war between Russia and Ukraine has puzzled many. And his dismantling of government agencies has created chaos at home and abroad. We’ll have to watch as Trump 2.0 rebuilds itself over the long term. Four years definitely won’t be enough for him to accomplish everything he wants, and his repeated references to a third term are unfortunately no joke. He has often walked his words back and the Constitution prevents a third presidential term, but still…

Trump has said he wants a third term for a long time, and speculated about it during his first term. Despite his ups and downs, he never gave up the idea of making a comeback, and the idea of Trump 2.0 has been brewing for four years. Throughout his campaign and after he was reelected, Trump has surprised people with what he says and does and regularly raises the idea of serving another term.

Not long after Trump took office this year, certain Republican members of Congress proposed an amendment that would allow a president to run for a third term if his first two terms were not consecutive. While amending the Constitution is extremely difficult — nearly impossible, according to some scholars — Trump said that he was “not 100% sure” {https://www.barrons.com/news/trump-not-100-sure-he-s-barred-from-third-term-c8a1185c} that the Constitution prohibits him from running again.

In the few short months Trump has been in office, radical changes have taken place inside and outside the U.S. Elon Musk was let loose to deal with government efficiency. Musk fired entire department of workers, suspended foreign aid and even trashed the Department of Education. Civil service workers have sued to protect their rights, and the courts have stopped some of the migrant deportations. The legal impact of America’s separation of powers — the mutual curbing of expanded power — is more apparent under Trump. His Republican Party holds the majority in both the House and the Senate. Although some Republicans think Trump’s comments about a third term are humorous, I’m afraid not many don’t really find them funny.

At the end of March, some U.S. media analysts suggested that Trump had raised the issue a third term to divert attention from controversies within his administration and also to impede his successor. Although that makes sense, if we zoom out, we can see that the idea of a third term has never been far from Trump’s mind.

Trump acts like a boss who likes to brag about his big achievements. He has fully brought his market assessments and bold risk-taking from the business world to the political world. While everyone just wants to make it through these next four years, it is hard to say in what shape Trump will take during the next presidential election or how will continue to influence events.