Pam Bondi, the American prosecutor general, expressed skepticism about the idea that Donald Trump is serving a third mandate in the White House, saying that when the current presidency of his boss ends on January 20, 2029, he “will probably be finished”.
Bondi’s comments come just a week after Trump gave his most frank indication, but he was seriously planning to try for a third term to follow those that started in 2017 and last January – despite the clear ban on having it devoted to the American Constitution.
In an interview broadcast on March 30, Trump told NBC News that “I’m not kidding” about the idea of a third term, adding: “I like to work”. When asked how he could get around what seems to be a ceiling in two tight terms for any individual president, he said: “There are methods that you could do.”
Bondi’s point of view on controversy has weight because it is the main responsible for the application of laws in the United States – and also a loyalist of Trump whose dedication to the president is indisputable. She told Fox News on Sunday that, in her opinion, Trump was “a very intelligent man, and we, I hope that we have been able to have it for 20 years as president”.
She then added: “But I think it will be finished, probably, after this quarter. We have to look at the Constitution, and it would be a heaviness.”
The limit of two terms was fixed in stone in 1951 with the ratification by the states of the 22nd amendment. He says that “no one will be elected to the president’s office more than twice”.
The restriction was introduced in the wake of the unprecedented record of Franklin Roosevelt to serve three presidential mandates during the Second World War. He won a fourth term but died in 1945 only a year.
Bondi’s comment that it would be a “heaviness” to overcome the rule with two mandates was a reference to what it would take to change the American Constitution and revoke the 22nd amendment. Any reform of the text of the Constitution requires a vote of two thirds of the two Congress Chambers, combined with ratification by three -quarters of the 50 states.
In the highly polarized political world today, such a scenario goes beyond the imagination.
Aside from the constitutional change, Trump’s cryptic remarks on other “methods” have aroused speculation about his intentions. A tactic that attracted some attention would be for the vice-president, JD Vance, to present himself as a republican presidential candidate in 2028, with Trump as a running mate.
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Then, the theory said, if the Vance Trump ticket wins the presidential election, Vance could resign on the first day of the new mandate and Trump would automatically become president for the third time.
The strategy has an attractive simplicity. However, there is a major problem.
The 12th amendment, which presents procedures to elect the president and the vice-president, says that “no person is ineligible to the president’s office will be eligible for that of the vice-president of the United States”. The clear involvement is that Trump, prevented from presenting himself to a third term as president, would also be excluded from the candidacy for the vice -president – making the cunning null and not avenue.
