After President Donald Trump said last year that he wanted to be a dictator for a day, he insisted that he was only joking. Now, he is saying that he may try to hold onto power even after the constitution stipulates that he must give it up, and this time, he insists he is not joking.
Maybe he is and maybe he isn’t. Trump loves stirring the pot and getting a rise out of critics. Talk of an unconstitutional third term distracts from other news and delays the day he is seen as a lame duck. Certainly some in his own camp consider it a joke as Republican leaders laugh it off and White House aides mock reporters for taking it too seriously.
But the fact that Trump has inserted the idea into the national conversation illustrates the uncertainty about the future of America’s constitutional system, nearly 250 years after the country gained independence. More than at any time in generations, a president’s commitment to limits on power and the rule of law is under question and his critics fear that the country is on a dark path.
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