“They say I can’t run again. That’s the expression. Sir. And somebody said, ‘I don’t think you can.’ Ooh!” Trump said, chuckling.
Politico, the outlet Trump has targeted with a new false conspiracy theory, compiled a list of ways the president might make a grab for power in the next few years.
He could generate a movement to repeal the 22nd Amendment by passing another amendment—which would be virtually impossible since it would require 38 states, including many blue states, to ratify the new amendment.
Trump could also exploit a potential “vice president” loophole in the amendment. The idea goes that Trump would be elected as vice president, then the president—say, JD Vance—would resign and allow Trump to immediately ascend back to the presidency.
Trump says ‘there are methods’ for seeking third term in White House
In an interview Trump said he wasn’t joking when he alluded to a purported loophole for a third term as president. Donald Trump has said there are “methods” – if not “plans” – to circumvent the constitutional limit preventing US presidents from serving three terms.
In an interview aired Sunday on NBC, Trump was asked about his trying to stay in office beyond his second presidency, a specter he has repeatedly raised while sometimes claiming he is just joking.
Trump told host Kristen Welker “there are methods which you could do it” – and this time made it a point to say he was not joking.
“Well, there are plans,” Trump said to Welker. “There are – not plans. There are methods – there are methods which you could do it, as you know.”
Welker alluded to a purported loophole some Trump supporters have fantasized about finding in which he could be the running mate to his vice-president, JD Vance, or someone else in the 2028 election. The person to whom Trump would be the running mate in that scenario could then immediately resign after winning and being sworn in as president, letting Trump take over by succession.
America 2025:
My family Is Terrified So We Are Self Deporting
I'm a gringo who has travelled the world not simply visiting but having lived for extended periods of time in three foreign countries. I've seen how the other half lives. I am nearing retirement after a career in software engineering.
We have decided to throw in the towel in America, and make a move out of the country. We are all studying French and plan to relocate to the exurbs of Paris. My uncle retired near Orange and my cousin still lives in Paris, so we are not entirely without connections but it's still a huge change and there will be nothing easy about it.
To me, at this point, it's like 1938 Germany all over again, concentration camps in Texas and Guantanamo, Jackbooted thugs arresting long term residents on their way to work or as they do their weekly shopping, or invading churches and schools to arrest...8 year old "criminal aliens"? That's not border enforcement, that's out and out fascism, period.
My wife (born Colombian), even though a naturalized citizen for decades, lives in daily fear. She rarely leaves the house and when she does she makes sure to carry her passport. But that is still cold comfort as Stephen Miller has already promised to go through every naturalization application going back decades, looking for any "i" not dotted, any "t" not crossed and using that as an excuse to strip naturalized citizenship away. My daughter stands aghast at the thought of having her rights stripped from her, not just abortion (we are in a blue state thankfully), but also less well known issues such as having her property ownership rights stripped away and having to depend on a husband for his discretion on such things (see project 2025) or being forced to stay in an abusive marriage because no-fault divorce if it should come to that, would be eliminated (again project 2025).
In my opinion our country is lost and there is no saving it, not in my lifetime. I think we have passed the point of no return. So yeah, I'm running. Tired of the fight, I just want to protect my family and pass the torch to the younger generations....My work and achievements for democracy, modest as they may have been, have sustained me and kept me sane. But I just have no more to give and I have to think beyond my political interests and focus on my family. We are all frightened and don't have the resources to keep up the fight.
Implementing Project 2025
Project 2025 architects are among those behind the American Accountability Foundation and their blacklists targeting people of color
One recent list created by the American Accountability Foundation (AAF) includes the names of mostly Black people with roles in government health alleged to have some ties to diversity initiatives.
A significant proportion of the nominees targeted by AAF – including Brown Jackson, Cook and Omarova – were women of color.
The dozens of public employees whose information was collected in “dossiers” on the DEI watchlist site are overwhelmingly people of color. Of 44 profiles listed under agencies at the time of reporting, 29 were people of color, and 20 were women of color alone. Just five were white men.
“The fact that many on the list are people of color just adds another layer of vileness to the project,” Heidi Beirich, chief strategy officer of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) said.
The Guardian
Now he is laying a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports including from Canada and Mexico. Tomorrow. They sort of drop this during the Super Bowl.
What do you suppose this will do to the cost of, like, everything, but especially infrastructure projects, cars, aircraft manufacturing, and oh. We have a housing shortage. We have planned mass transit projects in the works. And it isn’t as if we can restart our steel industry tomorrow, if in fact we really want that level of pollution in this country anymore. I remember it well. The skies were black and the rivers burned. Flying into Cleveland at night was like a descent into hell. Same with the South Side.
All my friends who were born and raised on the South Side are dead from cancer already. I miss them. They were only in their 60’s.
I am so beyond angry.
This is vandalism.
And, they’re laying off EPA workers who protect the Great Lakes. Vought shut down the bureau that protects consumers from financial abuse. They want to destroy FEMA per the puppy murderer. Do you believe that person is in charge of DHS??? OMG.
All I can say is don’t steal a chicken. And avoid gravel pits.
They honest to god are trying to destroy this country. I cannot believe what I’m seeing.
Colorado Blue
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Jan. 31 ordered that Black History Month, Women's History Month and others were officially "dead" and that the military would no longer mark them....
The decision to abandon the Black engineering event marks a significant shift in military recruiting strategy -- and sparked calls of discrimination.
"It's f---ing racist," one active-duty Army general told Military.com on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation. "For the Army now, it's 'Blacks need not apply' and it breaks my heart."
Military.com
Donald Trump’s first election to the presidency in 2016 triggered an energetic defense of democracy from the American establishment. But his return to office has been met with striking indifference. Many of the politicians, pundits, media figures, and business leaders who viewed Trump as a threat to democracy eight years ago now treat those concerns as overblown—after all, democracy survived his first stint in office. In 2025, worrying about the fate of American democracy has become almost passé. The timing of this mood shift could not be worse, for democracy is in greater peril today than at any time in modern U.S. history.
Thus while Trump could not LEGALLY run directly for a third term (and thus should be denied ballot access as a Presidential candidate again), he could be the running mate of Vance or someone else.
What most folks don/’t know is that both the VP and the President are sworn in BEFORE what we see at the inauguration — this is done privately (in case the inauguration is running late) so that the office does NOT go vacant at 12 Noon on January 20. Once VP Trump is sworn in, either the President resigns or having refused to take the oath so there is a vacancy and then VP Trump could be sworn in as President (which is probably how Trump would want it done — he would want the show). Trump could then nominate the presidential candidate as VP under the 25th Amendment, Of course this entire scenario, in either fashion, requires the complicity of the that person — would Vance actually be willing to go along? Would Thiel and the others who promoted Vance let him? That is a separate question.
@teacherken
