It is not the regime of the century, and yet Donald Trump has lost weight. His build is always massive but his face was thinned without having widened and his belt had to win two notches. The president walks with a faster step when, on Friday evenings, on the South Lawn, he joins Navy onethe presidential helicopter which leads him on the base of Andrews, from where he takes off every weekend for Palm Beach.
In his entourage, we welcome this transformation which we do not know if it is influenced by the fight against junk food led by RFK Jr. or the expression of a political ambition. In two months, the president will be 79 years old, two less than Ronald Reagan when, in 1989, he left his duties. Trump must be beautiful and upset those who, formerly, provided that by succeeding Joe Biden, he would himself maintain the institutionalization of an American gerontocracy. Less abdominal fat, a more angular face, curved costumes give it a few years less. Let’s say four years: that’s good, because the Republican suggests that this second term will not be his last.
Since he returned to the White House, Trump, with a popularity (his approval rate is around 50 %) never known since he entered politics, has been used for all his visitors that he will not have enough four years to transform America. And that, such as Franklin Roosevelt, who was elected four times consecutively, he would see himself competing in 2028. The message quickly went to his supporters.
A bypass
In his public appearances, the crowd of his fans, massaged on the road which leads to Mar-A-Lago, his residence, chants “Four more years! »» Or “A third term! »» These uninhibited Trumpists, sometimes equipped with “4eva” panels (for every“Forever”, note), pretend to ignore the 22nd amendment to the Constitution which prohibits a president from exercising more than two four -year terms.
To reform the American fundamental law, 34 out of 50 states would have to claim a constitutional convention and the repeal of the 22nd amendment is voted by 38 of them
For Trump and his entourage, this provision, adopted in 1947, three years after the death of Roosevelt, and returned to force in 1951, is a bypass detail. “I don’t laugh. There are ways to do so ”said the president in an interview with NBC. Returning last week from Mar-A-Lago and confiding in some reporters on board Air Force One, Trump played the card of popular support, as if the fervor of his supporters alone could justify that he extended his lease in Washington: “We have almost four years left, and it’s long, but despite that, so many people say:” You must introduce yourself again! “” But, assuming that this communion with Maga continues with the Republicans, there is no magic wand to change the constitution.
To reform the American fundamental law, 34 states of 50 would have to claim a constitutional agreement and the repeal of the 22nd amendment be voted by 38 of them. This method has never been used in the history of the United States. And it is unlikely that, even after the 2026 midterms, including in the event of a republican tidal wave, this figure is reached. The other method, more classic, consists for the congress in adopting a new amendment, with a majority of two thirds in the Senate and in the House of Representatives. Impossible today as the majorities are narrow, and very improbable in two years, even in the event of a large victory.
Except that Trump is convinced that a tip exists. That a kind of legal feint, of which he does not yet specify nature, will allow him to beat the platforms in 2028. If the president does not specify by which trick he intends to maintain himself in the White House-or in any case in his race-, others began to reveal the strategy, like Steve Bannon, ex-advisor and strategist during his first mandate. Faced with Chris Cuomo, on Newsnation, Bannon, who considers very soberly to be “Convinced that Trump will show up and win again in 2028 (…) Because a man like this does not appear until once per century ”did not want to give details, preferring to reveal them “In a few months”but tracks have leaked in the American press. Leaks that we owe to the interested party himself since we find this very “banonian” paw that everything is almost reinterpretable in the Constitution. At envy.
Thus, the 22nd amendment does not say, unlike the French Constitution, if it applies to two consecutive or not mandates. Clearly, Trump would be exempt from banning to represent himself since the first mandate would not count. It is pulled by hair, and it is above all counting on the Supreme Court which, if it is the majority conservative, will not necessarily have the same look as Bannon.
Musical chairs
Another lash tower envisaged, already nicknamed the “Medvedev method”in reference to the former Russian Prime Minister with whom Putin had traded his duties for four years in 2008, a Vance-Trump ticket for 2028. Vance would resign immediately after having taken oath and Trump would return to the White House … who would then name Vance-President. This game of musical chairs, mentioned in the entourage of the president, ignores the 12th amendment which provides that“No person constitutionally ineligible to the function of president will be eligible for that of vice-president of the United States”. However, Trump, with two mandates, would be ineligible!
A combination that is both of the phishing and the catch -gogo
Last crazy scenario (but who imagined four years ago a comeback of Trump as crowned as successful as in November?): In 2029 access the Republican to the presidency of the House of Representatives, then resign the elected president and vice-president (of the same edge of course), which would again propel Trump at the head of the state. Crazy, and it is however the hypothesis which would encounter the least legal obstacles.
For unusual that these arrangements may appear, they translate Trump’s will to delay as much as possible a war of succession. In the United States, the latest mandates are never to the advantage of those who accomplish them, especially after the mid-term elections which are rarely favorable to the Republicans. The idea, which is presented as far -fetched, is not to put Historically to the credit of Trump. Already Reagan, in his time, although a lot but at the top in the polls, wanted to repeal the 22nd amendment. He was unbeatable and he knew it. Clinton has also always defended this idea. The Democrat believes that he would have defeated George W. Bush and avoided the greatest scraper in American history in the country when the Supreme Court itself had appointed, in 2000, the winner.
Let Clinton console himself: if the highest American jurisdiction or if the congress authorized a third term for Trump, it would also authorize him to represent himself. After all, Clinton is two years younger than Trump, and he too was particularly Minci.
There remains one last combination which is both from the phishing and the catcraper. Trump said he “Would love to present himself against Obama”which would also benefit from the new rules. The American president prides himself on having beaten Hillary Clinton, signed the political death of Joe Biden, he missed his hunting board than Obama. The latter, facing the host Stephen Colbert, had raised this hypothesis in a slight manner four years ago: “If I could arrange myself to have a lining, with a headset, and I am in the basement, to blow the text (…) It wouldn’t be any problem for me! »» This is exactly how the Republicans imagined it during Biden’s only mandate. But does it really count for a third term?
