Trump makes his third-term shot official

The United States' highest court can distort the 2nd Amendment's stipulation of a "well regulated Militia" and construe the 8th Amendment's prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishment" as inapplicable to death by state murder. But impossible for the Supreme Court to fudge is the 22nd Amendment's clear, unambiguous, straightforward wording: "No person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice." In that, there's just no wiggle room.

But there's plenty of room for Donald Trump — and for an equally unambiguous reason. In true authoritarian fashion, to him the rule of law is whatever he says it is. Hence the 22nd Amendment's wording is subject to his interpretation. And yesterday, in an NBC News

interview conducted by Kristen Welker, Trump said for the first time that he's seriously contemplating a third term, which means he's decided on one.

After Welker noted that in the past he has joked about another run, to that Trump answered, "No, no I’m not joking. I’m not joking.” Enter the "many people say" phenomenon: "A lot of people want me to do it," said Trump. Then he deflected. "But we have — my thinking is, we have a long way to go. I’m focused on the current." In other words, he could have said the idea of an unconstitutional third run was still no more than a matter of "humor" — violating the nation's founding document is always funny, after all — but his intent was to make clear, now, that he's off and running. The sooner the outrage is introduced, the quicker it will become acceptable by repetition to the public.

Even quicker was the White House's post-interview follow-up. It's "far too early to think about" the idea that Communications Director Steven Cheung's boss just deliberately splattered on the airwaves for the public to think about. "Americans overwhelmingly approve and support President Trump and his America First policies," said Cheung in a wildly inaccurate statement. For now, he continued, Trump is focused on "undoing all the hurt" inflicted on the American people by the Biden administration, such as overseeing the most vibrant eceonomy the nation has seen in decades. Trump, on the other hand, is deadset on "Making America Great Again" — via, for instance, economy-wrecking measures.

That, even Trump acknowledges in his dictatoral manner of "Let them eat tariffs." In the NBC interview he was asked if U.S. auto companies will need to raise their prices because of his newly imposed tax. Trump's response: "I couldn’t care less if they raise prices, because" — brace for his non sequitur of the month — "people are going to start buying American-made cars." So "I couldn’t care less. I hope they raise their prices, because if they do, people are gonna buy American-made cars," he repeated. "We have plenty."

Is he worried about rising car prices? Again, "No, I couldn’t care less, because if the prices on foreign cars go up, they’re going to buy American cars." Inherent in that statement is a profound obliviousness to the unavoidable fact that U.S. auto companies will also be subject to his tax on imported American cars from Canada and on the many auto parts they must import.

Industry experts told the Detroit Free Press that tariffs "will blow up what is a complex supply chain and tack on billions of dollars in costs as companies pay tariffs on parts that cross borders, often several times, before reaching final assembly on a vehicle made in the United States. Also, nearly half the vehicles sold in the states are imported. Experts warn new car prices will soar."

This and other regressive economic measures are what justify Trump's violating the 22nd Amendment. "The people" demand more pain — for no logical or necessary reason whatsoever. Chaos has always been Trump's No. One goal, and he excels at it. So, four more years of it is perhaps what he imagines he hears. If not, he couldn't csre less about that. Not caring is what dictators do.

As for how Trump could pull off a third run — which, by the way, in no way guarantees a third term — Welker raised the possibility of having Veep Vance at the top of the 2028 ticket, after which, should he win, he'd turn the office over to Trump. Does such a slimy potentiality trouble the latter? Not at all, he said, "that’s one" way it could be done. "But there are others too,” he said. "There are others." The Times: "Trump declined to say what those could be." One impossible way would be a Constitutional Amendment aimed at nullifying the 22nd — impossible because a two-thirds approving vote by Congress and then agreement by three-fourths of the states would be needed. No friggin' way that would ever come about.

But there is indeed another way in which Trump could run for third term. It's the most likely one: the aforementioned way of the 22nd Amendment's wording being subject to his whim. He'd simply ignore the Constitution, the Supreme Court and the rule of law. For sure he'd have the support of his party, which has repeatedly overlooked or embraced his dictatorial behavior. Otherwise, opponents of this scheme would just have to grin and bear it — the very way they've already had to tolerate the immense and growing piles of his authoritarianism.

Should Trump, 78, survive to 2028, there shall be no Republican presidential primaries. For starters, dictators aren't presidents, so they're not subject to such democratic silliness. Nor do they tolerate competition, especially from within. Republicans might allow faux Stalinist primaries in which the "winner" mysteriously receives 99% of the vote, but generally their minions adopt the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei's assumption that the dictator is forever, so why bother?