Screenshots via CSPAN (L)/The Atlantic (R)
New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman isn’t buying into fears President Donald Trump would find a way to run for a third term, saying he “doesn’t need it” because he’ll remain the GOP’s “dominant figure” until the day he dies.
Haberman and her Regime Change co-author Jonathan Swan spoke this week at The Atlantic Festival at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in New York. Haberman and Swan’s book is an explosive, behind-the-scenes look at the start of Trump’s second administration, though the president has dismissed the book’s credibility and personally attacked the authors.
Haberman told The Atlantic’s Tim Alberta that Trump’s repeated teasing about a 2028 run — despite him coming to the end of his two-term limit — has led to that being a constant question she and Swan receive, but she doesn’t buy into the hype.
The journalist argued Trump, who is 80 years old, “doesn’t need” to remain in political office to continue having major influence over the Republican Party:
The question we get a lot is will he try for a third term. I truly don’t believe that he will.
I’m absolutely willing to be wrong. It’s really important to acknowledge when we’re wrong, which all of us have been at various points in the last 20 years.
But I truly don’t believe. I don’t think he wants that and he doesn’t need it.
He will be the dominant figure in this party until he is no longer on this Earth, whether he’s in office or not. He has made more money than he’s ever made in his life during this presidency, at least just liquid.
Trump continues to tease a third term and even sold Trump 2028 merch and donned a Trump 2028 hat in July while speaking at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
While he has acknowledged that the 22nd Amendment prevents him from running again, he has said he’d “love” to.
That amendment was ratified in 1951 after Franklin Roosevelt ran for and won a third and fourth term as president in 1940 and 1944.
“Everybody asks me that question. And you know that the law is very strong on that. I’d love to run, but the law is very strong. I get asked by everyone. Even tonight, they’re screaming at the event, ‘2028!’ No, everybody wants me to do it, but the law is very strong,” Trump said.
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