About a week after Donald Trump was elected to a second term, the president-elect spoke at a House Republican conference meeting and made a comment that raised a few eyebrows. “I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say, ‘He’s so good, we’ve got to figure something else out,’” Trump said, presumably as some kind of joke.
He might very well have been kidding, though the Republican has made similar comments several times in recent years, and he’s not alone. Last month, Steve Bannon talked up the idea of Trump running again in 2028 — he suggested it might be constitutionally permissible, despite the plain language of the 22nd Amendment — and Fox News host Trey Gowdy, a former Republican member of Congress, had similar comments on the air.
It’s against this backdrop that NBC News reported on the third day of the president’s final term.
Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., introduced a resolution that would amend the Constitution and allow Trump to seek a third term in office. ‘This amendment would allow President Trump to serve three terms, ensuring that we can sustain the bold leadership our nation so desperately needs,’ Ogles said in a statement [Thursday].
Let’s make one thing perfectly clear at the outset: Ogles proposed constitutional amendment will not go anywhere. In every Congress, plenty of lawmakers unveil silly proposals, knowing full well that they stand no chance of success, and this measure from the Tennessee Republican clearly falls into that category.
What’s more, while I obviously can’t read the congressman’s mind, it’s hardly a stretch to think Ogles, a scandal-plagued lawmaker, is looking for ways to distract attention from an intensifying ethics mess.
If that weren’t quite enough, the fine print of Ogles’ proposal matters. As a Newsweek report noted, “The language specifies preventing a president running for a third term if they were elected for two consecutive terms.”
In other words, the Tennessean’s measure would let Trump seek a third term, while preventing Barack Obama from doing the same, reinforcing the obvious fact that this is more of a partisan stunt than a serious effort to amend the Constitution.
But if Ogles’ idea is a doomed, unserious effort designed to distract from a scandal, why bother even taking note of it? For two reasons.
First, while some in GOP circles try to suggest that Trump is already eligible to run for a third term, Ogles’ amendment appears to concede that those voices are mistaken.
Just as important (if not more so) is an underappreciated larger trend: Filipe Campante, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, noted in response to the proposed amendment, “The reason why this is bad is the very fact that it’s transparently ridiculous: It shows how this is becoming a Kim Jong-Un-style cult of personality, where the sycophants try to outdo one another in their groveling to get the attention of Dear Leader.”
That rings true. Consider the developments of the last several weeks: Trump said he wants to acquire Greenland, so Republicans scrambled to introduce legislation to let him do exactly that. The president said he wants to take back the Panama Canal, so Republicans scrambled to unveil a bill on that, too.
Trump said he wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico, so Republicans wrote up legislation to make him happy. He said he wants to do away with birthright citizenship, so Republicans — you guessed it — launched a bill on this, too.
None of these bills is likely to pass. Their sponsors know that. But much of the contemporary GOP is engaged in a performative display not only to curry favor with the White House but to signal to Trump’s followers who is a true friend to the president.
Given everything we’re seeing about the state of Republican Party politics in 2025, this race to the bottom is likely to get worse before it gets better.
