He today ruled out running for vice president in 2028, a move some supporters say will allow him to circumvent the two-term limit imposed by the US Constitution.
“I would have the right to do that,” Trump assured reporters accompanying him on the presidential jet that is taking him from Malaysia to Japan.
“I won’t do it,” he added, considering that way “I’d be playing it smart” and “it wouldn’t be nice.”
Is he aiming for a third term?
Trump, who was US president from 2017 to 2021 and began his second term on January 20, has often publicly referred to, without rejecting, calls from his supporters to run for a third term, despite the fact that the US Constitution prohibits it.
He has also repeatedly displayed red hats with the inscription “Trump 2028”, the year of the next presidential election.
One of the most popular proposals in the Trump world is for the 79-year-old billionaire to run for vice president in three years, with current vice president Jay Dee Vance running for president.
Putin-Medvedev model?
In this scenario, in the event of a victory, Vance would resign and be automatically replaced by Trump, who would thus be able to remain in the White House, bypassing the 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution which provides that no one can be elected president of the US more than twice.
“Trump will be president in 2028, people have to get used to that idea,” one of the main ideologues of the MAGA movement, Steve Bannon, recently told The Economist magazine.
“There is a strategy” to do this, which will be revealed “in due course”, insisted the influencer and former adviser to the US president.
