Trump Vs. The 22nd Amendment

Trump Vs. The 22^nd Amendment

By

Leonard Zwelling

“No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice…”

22^nd Amendment to the United States Constitution-Proposed 1947; Ratified 1951

Mr. Trump has demonstrated himself to be transactional, mean, and anti-intellectual. He appears to be insensitive to the pain he is causing other people. Elon Musk, a man clearly on the spectrum that includes autism, seems to be a perfect partner for Mr. Trump echoing his insensitivity to the plight of others. He too is transactional (I wonder what he did for Trump to get this unelected platform), mean (remember the chainsaw), and anti-intellectual (yes, he’s smart, but does he ever look before he leaps?).

Mr. Trump has made it abundantly clear that this trip to the White House would be different than his first. He’s has taken the use of the executive orders to new heights of activism rolling over laws and the Constitution in the process. My reading of the First Amendment suggests that it applies to all people in the country, not just citizens. Thus, arresting and deporting people for their speech or writings is against the Constitution, thus requiring the Trump Administration’s invoking of a law from 1790. Trump also wants to eliminate birth right citizenship and upend the Fourteenth Amendment.

Now it seems he is willing to take on the 22^nd Amendment directly by seeking a third term. He claims to have a mechanism to do so. There is no such mechanism. Even if we are at war on our shores, in November of 2028, we go to the polls to elect a NEW President not named Donald Trump. If this does not occur, and we are all still here, something went severely wrong.

As I have outlined, on at least three occasions, Mr. Trump has made statements or instructed his minions (you know the ones with black masks and ICE on their chests) to violate the Constitution. It is abundantly clear that the document he pledged to uphold and the laws emanating from it will not serve as guardrails in a Trump Administration.

Looking back on his first term, his major accomplishments were the huge tax cuts for his rich buddies and Operation Warp Speed which he would probably deny he had anything to do with given the way his HHS Secretary views the efficacy of vaccines.

So, in summary, Mr. Trump’s first term was pretty lackluster and he couldn’t even get re-elected given the state of the economy in 2020 as well as the ravages of Covid, which his current supporters think was really not so bad. These same people are not frightened of a measles epidemic either. His second term has started off with his mediocre cabinet appointments, his aggressive tariffs that have enraged friend and foe alike, and still no drop in the price of eggs or gasoline as far as I can see.

Why would anyone want this guy for a third term? He really hasn’t accomplished anything much and his plan to do so seems farfetched.

On top of that, he flouts the conventions of this country when he challenges the validity of the Amendments to the Constitution for his own mean purposes.

If Mr. Trump is proposing that the nation throw out its most important documents so that he can do what he wants in his old age, the nation needs to rise up and say “you have gone this far. You may go no further.”

And, on the question of age, wasn’t it Mr. Trump that accused Mr. Biden of being too old. I believe that Mr. Trump is the oldest President ever inaugurated at 78 years and 7 months (older than Biden was at his inauguration by 5 months or so). If he were to be inaugurated again on January 20, 2029, he would be well over 82. Do we really want another 82-year-old in the White House?

Donald Trump’s behavior and that of Mr. Musk have been cringe-worthy forever. One of these men has been a huckster all his life and is treating the Oval Office as a set for a reality TV show on which he is the host. The other is unlike Trump, a very successful businessman, but seriously unsuited for life in the political arena.

I have a better idea than a third Trump term. Send Elon packing and then follow the Constitution. What a concept!