658
Trump Says He's 'Entitled' to Illegal Third Term as Allies Draft Voter Suppression Decree
(www.commondreams.org)
this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2026
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So, is our military going to need to step up to ensure a fair election next year, and also prevent Trump from taking office again? That is, assuming he, A) lives that long, and B) somehow pulls this off. Isn't that why they are required to swear an oath to the Constitution, and not the President? Does that actually hold any water?
Look, if the U.S. Military were going to uphold the Constitution he already wouldn’t be President anymore.
Eh. I mean he is clearly shitting all over norms, blatantly corrupt, most likely treasonous, and robbing the fucking treasury blind, but all of that stuff is Congress's responsibility to hold him accountable and draw lines and they have failed.
I don't know if you can point to any part of the constitution that he has clearly violated. But the two term limit is codified. The supreme clutter doesn't need to weigh in, the stupidest motherfucker in the country can do the math to see it's unconstitutional (they might not care, but they can see it).
If folks want to toss the constitution, great, they just tossed the basis of authority for the President, Congress, and the Supreme Court. Guess we get to writing a new one.
I hesitate to declare this is the line he won't be allowed to cross, because he's sailed over every other one. But I really think the entire system of government is shot if he does this. We would certainly be a failed state at that point, where right now we are kinda Schrödinger's Failed State. We may already be, but we'll have to measure it post Trump.
I mean he's clearly broken the first amendment more than a few times by ordering the government to pressure organizations over their right to free speech.
Also, constitutional problems with his deportation bullshit. Which he's been ordered not to do, and yet they're still doing it.
It's very important to make the distinction between Congress failing to hold him accountable and declining to. In the first case Congress is ineffective. In the second, and current situation, it is willfully inept. Big difference.
I'm getting tired of all these assholes calling Americans cowards for not rioting in the streets every day and erecting a guillotine on the ellipse! They tried that during the George Floyd fallout, and the right was quite successful in vilifying them. It was only the glaring racism of Trump's first term that revitalized BLM. His second term has effectively quashed that as well, somehow.
The US population is effectively a hostage, and this started long before Trump. Their livlihoods are financially bound to their employment, which is precarious at best. I've said it elsewhere and I'll say it many more times: US citizens, particularly the ones in the upper-middle class are going to have to be willing to die. It's that simple. If the population "rises up" like all the internet idiots want them to, Trump will implement the Insurrection Act ASAP. The aforementioned willfully inept Congress is highly unlikely to stop him. That's going to result in one or both of a lot of dead citizens or a civil war.
All of this brings me to the midterm elections. Americans are facing the shit sandwich of the current criminal and his willing accomplices in Congress, and the Democrats who:
I think a lot of Americans are hoping things improve after the midterms, and I hope they're right. I don't think its going to happen, but I think plenty of people are looking for a reason to not risk their livelihoods, or lives. And that's what its going to be. This criminal has no care for anyone but himself. He has no compassion or empathy. He sees US citizens the same way the worst Kings and Emperors of old did: as expendable. If they get "uppity," he will not lose a wink of sleep ordering the military, National Guard, ICE, police forces, or any armed body he can control to open fire on them. Whether they will or not is a massive question most rational people don't want to see asked.
The US is effectively being run by a mad king, and whatever safeguards used to be in place for such a situation are either complicit, or ineffectual (ie, the courts). People are really hoping that a Dem "wave" in the midterms will somehow fix something. Like I said, I hope they're right.
We are effectively a dictatorship right now and the only thing that can reverse that is if Trump fails to act fast enough or acts so fast he gets heavy pushback. This far they have been effective at letting the most right-wing elements dominate the media so by the time they do crazy shit the people have already sort of absorbed the idea and it doesn't seem outlandish.
He can ignore the courts in the event that they act fast enough to matter. He controls the military and can simply blockade polling locations, cut off power, etc. He can at least fuck with an election to the point where the ordinary safeguards against vote fraud can't be ensured. He has all the tools needed to end democracy here.
The question is whether enough people will be complicit. Speaker Johnson will just declare he hasn't read the news until the coup is complete. But will none of the freedom-loving conservatives think twice about throwing away freedom? Epstein is creating cracks. It would be easy for Trump to fuck up and overplay his hand, but unfortunately he will win unless he makes an error.
But he also needs to move fairly fast. There is a lot of inertia in the way the system is built and if he moves too slowly, it's game over for him (well it's two years of playing defense). It takes time to replace everyone with sycophants.
I'm optimistic. I'm also 70 miles from Canada, if worse comes to worst.
I'm not some kind of super-patriot, but I'm a former soldier. I swore an oath to protect my country from enemies foreign and domestic, and that... weighs on me, despite how easy it would be to just enjoy old white guy status. I'm also old and out of shape and I have no illusions how it will end if it comes to that. But I've also lived a good life. If that's the end to which I'm fated... we can only do what we can in the situation we find ourselves in. Sometimes there is no winning scenario, you just do what you must.
Are there more like me? I don't know. My wife would let the country burn if it kept her family safe. I don't know anyone else thinking about things (aloud) the way I do and maybe they will let the world burn, too. But I won't. In 40 years I'll be dead one way or another, and 40 years later my life won't even be a memory. And the only thing that will exist of me is whatever has rippled out into the world from my actions. I won't have the failure of America be my only enduring legacy. That said, there is time and runway before that becomes inevitable, and I have hope.
I keep getting amused by how for three years USians cried that Russians should've rioted and ousted Putin, and now for the past year “it's complicated”.
Well, anyone saying Russians should vote Putin out aren't paying attention. Their elections haven't been legit since he rose to power. As for why they haven't kicked him out, it actually is complicated.
So all that to say don't fight it and let them do it ?
You can't point to something he's clearly violated? What? The most obvious and clear example is the emoluments clause, but it's easy to add in the first and fourth amendments. (Preference given to Christianity, and search and seizure without probable cause, as examples.)
Let me clarify my point. Those are all abstract things that require Congress or the Supreme Court to step in and draw lines. We've had in god we trust as the national motto for decades. There is a gray area there that can be argued and low-engagement voters just see it as noise.
But everyone can count to three. Everyone knows you get two terms and no more. Everyone knows you have to win an election to be President. It is unequivocal. Inarguable. So I think it carries weight in a way that those other violations of the constitution have not.
I never meant to create ambiguity around his illegal actions, just draw attention to how this act would be distinct from the rest.
It's not at all unconstitutional for Trump to enjoy a third term as president. All the Constitution says is that he can't be elected a third time. There's nothing that says he cannot run as VP and then succeed into POTUS once Vance steps down.
Sounds like you’ve read Amendment 22:
But you definitely haven’t read Amendment 12:
No, his bullshit technicality is still unconstitutional.
You really think this is bulletproof?
Have Trump run for Speaker. Hell, have him appointed as secretary of agriculture and have the people above resign. Its really not that difficult when your constitution is held together with bubblegum and pinky promises.
There is nothing in the constitution that says he cant enjoy a third term.
That's not true. If a vice president assumes the office, that still counts as a term even though he's not elected. I also believe there is a stipulation that no one disqualified from holding the presidency can be VP, though idk what is spelled out and what is just interpretation.
dictators fear most is a strong military that can initate a coup de tat anytime, thats why almost all countries with a dictator have very weak militaries, but a strong well funded secret police state.
Explain ice bloated budget
they are part of that 'police state funding"
Sorry that was not a question. It was supposed to be "that explains". Woops but thank you.
Well if we want to really go into constitutional interp, the military has no power to remove a sitting president.
But if elections do not occur a person doesn't continue to be the president, additionally a 3rd term is banned by the constitution.
If Trump were to "cancel" elections, a power he doesn't even have, the law is clear. He would still lose the presidency. It would then pass to the speaker of the house per the constitutional line of succession.
At that point the military would have a choice to make.
Of course these are big ifs, laws only matter if they are followed. And this scenario requires the law to be broken to even occur. Shits bad
The military literally takes an oath to uphold the Constitution.
Donald Trump is wiping his ass with the Constitution. There couldn’t be anything more Contritutional for the military to do.
They’ve spent the last year removing opposition in the military
The military? Probably not...
But you might get a federal agency already cosplaying as a para-military group to overlook the election and make sure you're voting correctly. 👍
The governor of every state has the right to call out that state's National Guard in the event of emergencies, and it is my sincere hope the states start to do it pre-emptively, NOW, even via state legislation, so that the NG are already under orders to protect the polls by the time November rolls around.
Without the NG, he has nothing tested and true but ICE, and their numbers are shit compared to the National Guard.
ICE's training is also nonexistent. The only thing they're effective at is terrorizing and occasionally murdering unarmed civilians.
Apparently not as they're all having fun bombing Iran without congress's approval.
military is for external threats, you don't want them playing cop
Every single person in the military swore an oath to defend the Constitution from all enemies foreign AND DOMESTIC.
Domestic enemies like Donald Trump pose a much greater threat to our country than any conventional combatant with a gun or missile - the military is already oath-bound to engage him the same way they do any other enemy.
The inaction from them so far doesn't paint a very promising picture regarding their willingness to actually do what's right to protect our country; but we also don't need the entire military to unite against that traitor: we just need a single one of them with the right training to apply through skills.
Servicemen and women: please actually do your job.
you obviously have no idea what "do your job" means here... military are trained to kill, do you really want them to "do their job" in US streets?
Don't conflate 'doing their job' with the misuse of force they're famous for. We need them to do their actual job, not just blindly follow orders into a series of war crimes.
Yes, contingent on those streets being populated by enemies of the US like Donald Trump / members of his regime / ICE.
you seem to be conflating military with police. you want them wantonly murdering Americans in the street? stfu lunatic.
Your maga is showing.
MAGA would love to see military in the streets murdering people, I'm the polar opposite of MAGA.
At best, you're what's called "blue maga" as you're purity-testing your way right into supporting his regime.
I kinda doubt it though, since you're just ignoring what's being said to keep parroting the same strawman shit over and over: either your reading comprehension really is that bad, making you a useful idiot for the Trump regime; or you're deliberately posting in bad faith with the goal to advance the Trump regime in the first place, making you the kind of Nazi that does recognize the evil that's happening, and fucking loves it.
What's your goal here?
wtf is "blue maga". this binary shit of blood in the streets or you're MAGA is insane, not even worth discussing.
my goal? not blood in the streets at a minimum. what is your goal? murder anyone who doesn't have your approved thinking?
why does every discussion on the internet these days feel like talking to a bot or a Russian agent trying to sow chaos?
crawl back in your fucking hole and stop advocating for violence.
Literally described it in my previous post.
You'd be correct if that's what we were discussing. You're arguing against something that was never pitched in the first place - that's called strawman, and is a big part of why your posts reek of MAGA - they love pulling that shit.
Whose blood?
I stated my goal in my first post here, which is to encourage military personnel to act on their oath instead of blindly following the orders of the evil dipshits their oath compels them to slay.
Strawman again. That particular flavor of strawman is also rampant in MAGA posting. Whether or not Nazis - particularly, those Nazis currently in power, and using that power to enact global scale atrocities - are people who are worth preserving isn't the kind of thing that boils down to a difference of opinion any more than a tsunami could be described as just a wave. Technically correct? Sure. Difference in scope? Not even a little bit comparable.
Do you feel that dropping that line makes you less suspicious? Cuz the whole blue MAGA act stands out like a sore thumb.
No. Advocating for the preservation of Nazis is advocating for violence. Calling on people who swore an oath to fight those Nazis to actually do so is justified and overdue. There are no options on the table that don't involve violence; nor is you coming to the defense of the aggressors.
Police murder wantonly in our streets already, let's just throw more gas on the pile and see what happens.
how much worse would it be with a larger, better armed force that has been explicitly trained to kill?
How much worse could it be without any change in course? The military will be on the streets one way or another, either sooner @ the behest of state government or later as trump orders more door-to-door visits, except with murder as the goal instead of detainment to the camps?
You're sorta missing the point. Nobody is talking about having the military issuing parking tickets here.
It's about Trump running for office, and Congress/the courts saying "no".
Who does the military listen to? Do they obey Trump's orders to enforce his will at polling places?
they are trained killers, you want them murdering Americans? fucking lunatics everywhere.
You're just ignoring everything anyone is saying and repeating the same thing.
good luck with your coup
Repetition is truth for certain people.
Until you do. When shit hits the fan it generally comes down to which side the military sides with.
As an outsider. The big danger appears to be how your country has also armed your police and now customs people as if they're military too. Things could start to get very messy very fast.
They could start getting nasty a year ago
The National Guard is domestic, and is often used in domestic emergencies.