Is Trump plotting to be ‘king for life’?

On July 4, 1776, America freed itself forever, it believed, from the tyrannical rule of kings. Yet here we are today, almost 250 years later, as millions of Americans are gearing up for the 2028 presidential election, contemplating the possibility that Donald Trump will opt to remain in power. And it’s not altogether beyond the realm of possibility.

The US Constitution’s 22nd Amendment only bans a candidate being “elected” to more than two presidential terms without mentioning anything about taking the Oval Office on an additional occasion through succession.

Some Trump supporters have pointed to a legal loophole in which he could be the running mate to his vice-president, J.D. Vance, or someone else in the 2028 election. The individual to whom Trump would be the running mate in such an arrangement could then immediately step aside after winning and being sworn in as president, letting Trump assume power by succession.

While Vance has said he is not interested in participating in this scheme, what does Trump think about it?

Last week, Trump pointed to his presidential accomplishments as reasons to possibly campaign for a third term in office, the constitution be damned.

“We have the greatest economy we’ve ever had, I have my highest poll numbers that I’ve ever had,” he boasted to reporters in an interview on board Air Force One. “And, you know, based on what I read, I guess I’m not allowed to run. So we’ll see what happens.”

It’s that “we’ll see what happens” part that has Trump’s opponents up late at night. In other words, Trump has given the plan some thought, as have other prominent people who have the president’s ear, including Steve Bannon, the former presidential aide.

“Trump is going to be president in ‘28, and people just ought to get accommodated with that,” Bannon told The Economist on October 23.

Meanwhile, Trump’s opponents say that the US president’s militarization of American states to round up millions of illegal migrants is a convenient way to keep Democratic voters home on election day. Democrat Illinois Governor JB Pritzker equated actions taken by the current Trump administration to the “early days of the Nazi regime,” and claimed that the National Guard would be deployed at polling stations for future elections.

In a recent interview with Rachel Maddow, Pritzker claimed that the deployment of the National Guard has been carried out for the “broader goal” of the militarization of major American cities before the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election.

He said, “I fear that what they’re going to do is deploy these folks eventually to polling places and say they’re protecting the vote. Donald Trump knows that without shenanigans and without these breaches of the Constitution, that he’s going to lose the Congress, and if he loses, he’s going to immediately… do what he said he might do in 2020 which is use the military to confiscate the ballot boxes and count the votes claiming that there’s fraud.”

Meanwhile, Trump has gone on record as saying he could use the excuse of a military conflict to remain in power as a ‘war president,’ much like Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has done in his own country where martial law has been in place fort years. During a visit to the White House by Zelensky in August, Trump suggested that he is not opposed to using a war to cancel the next election.

“So let me just say three and a half years from now – so you mean, if we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections? Oh, I wonder what the fake news would say,” he said, before leading the Ukrainian leader to the White House gift shop, which was peddling ‘Trump 2028’ merch.

Are such comments merely designed to trigger and troll the Democrats as elections approach? It is possible, but we also have to consider Trump’s apparent belief that he is on some sort of messianic mission to save America. In his inaugural address, he claimed that when a gunman opened fire on him last summer, he “was saved by God to make America great again,” a remark that Peter Baker, a reporter from the New York Times, said was “an echo of the divine right of kings.”

Meanwhile, the billionaire real estate developer and former entertainer continues to repeat the claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him due to voter fraud, even though there is no evidence to support that belief.

After losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden, Trump tried every conceivable method to retain his grip on power. He implored Vice President Mike Pence, urging him not to certify the result, which resulted in thousands of protesters descending on the Capitol Building on January 6. He put pressure on governors and state officials, notably Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who he urged in an infamous telephone call that got him impeached to “find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state.”

“We won this election, and we won it by a landslide,” Trump told his millions of outraged followers during a rally before the Capitol riot. “We will stop the steal… We will never concede, it doesn’t happen… If you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

January 6 was, in the opinion of Trump’s detractors, an attempted coup d’etat, and one that could possibly occur again in 2028 if the Orange Man is denied the Oval Office for a third term should he seek it. At this point, nothing should surprise us.