Donald Trump tweeted a sign with the words “Trump 2024” on Tuesday night, suggesting he’s got his eyes on a third term, although he later admitted he was joking, HuffPost reports. He’s made the same joke several times throughout his presidency, and some wonder if it’s not a joke at all.
The photo shows a red and white sign with the the words “Trump 2024” and, between them, the words “Keep America Great,” which has become something of an unofficial campaign slogan for Trump’s re-election campaign.
It’s not clear, as of this writing, where the sign came from or if it was created through a photo-manipulation software program such as Photoshop.
What is clear is that Donald Trump cannot be elected president in 2024. That’s because the Constitution limits the president to no more than two terms. If Trump is re-elected for a second term in 2020, and he serves the entirety of that term, that will be it for him, unless the Constitution is changed. That’s extremely unlikely, considering that the task of amending the Constitution takes years and the requirements are extremely onerous. So difficult is it to amend the Constitution that it’s only happened 27 times in the 230 years since the Constitution has existed.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 11, 2019
Several times in his presidency, as reported previously by The Inquisitr , Trump has joked that he may be interested in staying in office longer than the two terms he’s allowed by the Constitution.
For example, back in 2018, Trump expressed his admiration for Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom he noted was “president for life” in his country. Trump then joked that he would enjoy that honor as well.
“President for life… I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot some day,” he said at the time.
Similarly, in June he tweeted a GIF that suggested he’ll be in office well into 2048 and beyond, which is of course impossible, not just because of the Constitution but because he’ll be well over 100 years old in 2048, if he lives that long.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 21, 2019
Whether or not Trump is joking when he suggests that he has his eyes on being president beyond the constitutional limit is, of course, known only to him. However, CNN writer Chris Cillizza, writing in 2018, noted that Trump has expressed fondness for dictators, one aspect of which is the lack of limitations on how long they can stay in office.
“The moral question — should the most powerful person in a country be able to decide how long he or she serves — is entirely lost on Trump,” Cillizza wrote.