Don’t take it as a joke when Trump and his allies say he will run again in 2028

In 2020, while Donald Trump and Joe Biden were locked in a nearby race for the White House, some of us who had covered Trump for years were playing alarms that, if he lost, would not go silent.

For us, this was more than obvious. In 2016, he made fun of his first choice, which he won, was going to be manipulated. In 2020, he had been saying for months that his second would also be manipulated or stolen. (He would repeat the claims before 2024, which he also won). And the joined repeatedly about staying in power forever.

At that time, Trump’s advisors, the substitutes and the media of Maga made fun of us for taking that seriously, accusing us of having Trump’s disorder syndrome, their favorite term for, well, Trump take in his word.

But we were quite sure that he planned to dispute the results of the 2020 elections, steal it, lie about the results or do anything that could remain in the White House beyond the end of his mandate.

It turns out that he did all of the above. As we all remember, he pressed officials such as the Secretary of State of Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, to “find” more votes that did not exist. He planned that false voters certified the result of the Electoral University in their favor in several states. He lied about evidence of electoral fraud. He implored his vice president Mike Pence to frustrate Biden certification. And prompted his followers to assault the Capitol and cancel the results.

Later, we learned how determined I had to remain in power.

“I’m not going to go,” Trump He told an assistant In December 2020, according to the New York Times reporter, Maggie Haberman. “The boss is not going to be left under any circumstance. We are simply to remain in power,” said another assistant, according to the jury testimony.

Even in 2024, I was still “joking” in the campaign that “should not have left” the White House in 2020.

Take Trump seriously

Well, indicate the laughing track because the so -called “jokes” are back. This time, he is “joking” about running for a third term. Remember, this is important, your assistants insist that these are just “jokes.”

He has been reflecting on a third term for years, but the first since he won a second term arrived last November in a republican event of the camera when he said: “I suspect that I will not run again unless you say:” It is so good that we have to solve something else. “

Then, in a demonstration in Nevada in January, he said: “It will be the greatest honor of my life not one, but two or three times or four times.”

He later said, you guessed it, that was a joke. “The holders of the false news. No, it will be to serve twice.”

Once again, their assistants insist that he is not serious, they say He is just “trolling his critics.” He says in private that he is only one of his “amusements to get attention and aggravate the Democrats.” Or, he is doing it to keep republican legislators online, “because it does not make it a lame duck,” says Presidential Historian Douglas Brinkley.

But I was not born yesterday, and we have been here before. The jokes become real very quickly.

Surely it sounds real for some in Maga World.

“People are already talking about changing the 22nd amendment so that they can fulfill a third term,” Texas Dan Patrick published in January in January.

The representative Andy Ogles introduced a joint resolution of the Chamber that month to amend the Constitution to allow Trump to run again.

And Steve Bannon completely He said it In Newsnation this week: “I firmly believe that President Trump will work and win again in 2028, so I have already backed it (he).” He added: “We are working on it. I think we will have a couple of alternatives. Let’s say that. We will see what is the definition of term limit.”

There are also surveys. A yogov survey Launched in February discovered that 52% of Americans think they will try to stay in the White House. Other survey From the change research found that 42% of voters would support a third mandate of Trump.

“But it is in the Constitution!” It may be screaming while you read this.

As if that prevented him from trying. From the end of the citizenship of birth law (14th amendment) to criminalize the protests (first amendment), freezing federal expenditure until federal agencies (both article 1), it has not been unchanged for such restrictions on its power.

So prepare for this very real possibility. They will say that you are just joking. They will make fun of you for hyperventilation. They insist that the 22nd amendment cannot be repealed.

But there is always a little really behind each of Trump’s jokes. And there is nothing to try. The alarm bells are playing. Again.

Se cupp is the host of “is cupp without filtering” in CNN.

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