J. Michael Luttig, a former Court of Appeals judge appointed by George H. W. Bush, writing in the December issue of The Atlantic (paywalled; Apple News+, Archive.ph links):

With his every word and deed, Trump has given Americans reason to believe that he will seek a third term, in defiance of the Constitution. It seems abundantly clear that he will hold on to the office at any cost, including America’s ruin.

The Founders of our nation foresaw a figure like Trump, a demagogue who would ascend to the presidency and refuse to relinquish power to a successor chosen by the American people in a free and fair election. Writing to James Madison from Paris in 1787, Thomas Jefferson warned that such an incumbent, if narrowly defeated, would “pretend false votes, foul play, hold possession of the reins of government.” Were that moment ever to come, the Founders believed, it would mark the demise of the nation that they had conceived, bringing to a calamitous end the greatest experiment in self-government ever attempted by man.

The Founders anticipated the problem but failed to provide a solution: there’s no way, short of force, to remove a sitting president who refuses to leave and who exercises personal control over a military force—such as ICE—and has the support of nearly 50% of the voting population.

It was strange to wake up to multiple news stories about Trump’s outrageous and unceasing ploy to subvert the Constitution and remain in office after 2028. For example, from Bernd Debusmann in the BBC:

US President Donald Trump has not ruled out the possibility of seeking a third term for the White House, saying he would “love to do it”.

But Trump rejected the possibility of running for vice-president in 2028 - an idea floated by some supporters as a way for him to circumvent the US constitution that bars the president from running for a third term.

Speaking to reporters during his trip to Asia, Trump described the idea as “too cute” and said it “wouldn’t be right”.

That same piece also noted the likely genesis of this latest round of nonsense:

Last week, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon - who remains a vocal supporter - claimed there was a “plan” to secure a third term for Trump.

“Trump is going to be president in ’28, and people ought to just get accommodated with that,” Bannon told The Economist. “At the appropriate time, we’ll lay out what the plan is.”

(Worth noting: Yes, Trump will still be in office in 2028; his term ends at Noon on January 20, 2029. This is, of course, not what Bannon meant, and I’m sure that ambiguity is by design.)

Then there was Speaker Mike Johnson, who, when asked about this ludicrous idea, tried to soft-pedal, if barely:

“I don’t see a way to amend the Constitution because it takes about 10 years to do that,” Johnson, a constitutional lawyer, said. “As you all know, to allow all the states to ratify what two-thirds of the House and three-fourths of the states would approve. So I don’t, I don’t see the path for that, but I can tell you that we are not going to take our foot off the gas pedal.”

Johnson didn’t say “Trump can’t run,” or that he won’t try to stay beyond his term via force or coercion, only a very legalese statement on the constitutionality of the issue.

This constant drip-drip-drip of “third Trump term” stories is a clear effort to burrow the purported inevitability of such an outcome deep into the American consciousness. It’s the same propaganda technique on display in Trump’s feces-dumping video, where he openly winked at “bombing Americans.”

It’s clear that Trump will try to stay in office beyond 2029, constitutionality be damned.