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The late Judge Antonin Scalia famously said that Congress would not “hide the elephant in the mouthhole.” His point was that the courts were skeptical of using minor provisions in the law to achieve drastic new legal changes.
After President Donald Trump said he was “not kidding” in consideration of the third term, the challenge of stuffing elephants into his mouthhole came to mind this week, with experts saying that it's possible under the Constitution.
Often, we must take such a moment with a ton of skepticism from the president who clearly enjoyed handing over the soundbites of snakes to the media to see the resulting screams. If so, he wasn't disappointed. The media has fallen into a new steam as commentators declared a democratic death.
Trump “love” “love” to face Obama in the hypothetical third presidency
However, given the President's statement, it is important to clarify the basis for this theory. This theory has long been a parlor game for law professors about how the president can avoid the two-term restrictions imposed by the 22nd Amendment.
Let's start with the language. The amendment, ratified in 1951, was ironically passed by Republicans who were responding to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's decision to infiltrate the second-term presidential tradition by seeking a third term. The intention was clear. They believed that serving more than three conditions put politicians in danger of occupying the office for life or long term.
To prevent this, the amendment states:
“People who have or have been elected as president more than once in the President's office, who owns or is elected as president, will not be elected multiple times in the president's office for more than two years of the term in which the president was elected.”
In particular, the language includes people who have not necessarily been elected to the office, but have “hold” the office for more than two years (probably inherited to the office due to vacancy).
Few people seriously doubt the intention of the amendment to prevent those serving in the third term from enforcing changes to national leadership.
That's when the mouse hole comes in. The revision refers to the person who was “elected.” Therefore, some supporters argue that the amendment does not prevent the president from “serving” his third term.
This tense interpretation means that it was only graced by the idea that the drafter ran to the office and was not working in the office. There is no compelling historical support for that interpretation.
Under this interpretation, the second president-elect was able to design a third term by running for vice president and resigning after taking office as elected president.
This tactical issue is another fix. The 12th Amendment states, “No person in the President's office is constitutionally ineligible and does not qualify as a Vice President of the United States.”
Trump was unable to run for vice president. Therefore, he will likely be banned from many state votes from running for the Vice President.
However, there is an even smaller mouthhole. Trump was able to design elections as representatives and as representative speakers.
After the election, they could both resign and Trump become third in the line of succession. With the exception of a considerable level of faith in both the president and vice president's resignation, maneuvering would make the constitutional design ock laugh behind the amendment.
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They'll also laugh at the main Republican candidate as Trump's “miniye” kind. Even the discussion of such manipulation before the election would lightly mean someone like Vice President J.D. Vance as merely a cut-off in the constitutional manual.
The lecture is also in favour of politicians and commentators who continue to argue that Trump is a dictator who is committed to destroying American democracy. It suggests that Trump is open to destroying constitutional traditions or language in order to achieve long-term power.
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To those who advocate this theory, this is not an attack on democracy or a call for tyranny. It is an effort to make the third term possible using a clever interpretation of the Constitution. Voters are aware of this manipulation when going to vote (suspected), and the court must support the interpretation (even more doubtful).
Ultimately, powder is not worth winning an award in raising this lead. President Trump has stopped the political revival of the century. His administration is set to make history with drastic changes that have continued to gain considerable support among the public. This claim only undermines its legacy and the support it needs to achieve it.
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