BY MATT BERG & CROOKED MEDIA |
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They’re playing to Trump’s strengths, which is as a mob boss.”
— Former Trump lawyer Ty Cobb, on how law firms, Ivy League universities and media outlets are kissing Trump's ring. |
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Trump says he’s “not joking” about seizing a third term in office. Surely the Supreme Court will stop him… right? RIGHT!?!? (Spoiler alert: It might not.)
- President Donald Trump raised the possibility of taking a flagrantly unconstitutional third term in a phone call with NBC News’ Kristen Welker on Sunday. “A lot of people would like me to do that,” Trump said. But, surely Mr. President, you must be joking? Trump clarified: “No, no I'm not joking.”
- Well, shit, we’re not laughing. Trump has been talking about a third term ever since his first term, though typically with a sly wink, as if he were just cracking a funny one. I might just trash American democracy, ha ha!
- President Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only president to have ever served more than two terms — before the ratification of the Constitution’s 22nd Amendment, which explicitly forbids it. Technically speaking, it says you can’t “be elected” president more than twice, which has gears turning in Trump circles about how to get around an election altogether.
- "There are methods which you could do it," Trump said. Thankfully, none look super easy. Trump could try to repeal the 22nd Amendment (a difficult process). He could run for vice president, and then pull a switcheroo, and ascend to the presidency. He could run for president in hopes that the Supreme Court doesn’t stop him. Or he could simply go full-on dictator, declare a national emergency, and refuse to leave (which was, after all, pretty much what he tried to pull back in 2020).
Would the Supreme Court, which is packed with Trump appointees, stop him? Well… perhaps not, three constitutional law experts tell What A Day.
- Trump’s most whackadoo options probably wouldn’t hold up in court, said Barbara McQuade, the former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. But McQuade worries that a VP-to-commander-in-chief backflip might actually succeed. “This move would be challenged in the courts,” she said. “But with this Supreme Court, there is certainly a very real possibility that Trump could prevail.”
- Some think Trump might simply ignore the 22nd Amendment and launch a campaign to secure the Republican Party nomination. “I don't think the courts will prevent him from doing that,” said Steven Schwinn, a constitutional law professor at University of Illinois Chicago
- Others are even more pessimistic: “Of course people should be worried. All four scenarios [flagged by Politico] are possible. But no one knows what the political and legal climate will be like four years from now,” said Louis Michael Seidman, a constitutional law professor at Georgetown.
- We all know that Trump has a habit of responding to reporters’ hypotheticals with open-ended answers that draw attention. Who knows if he’s serious? Then again, he often tries to grease up the awful truth with humor, as if to numb the shock, long before any attempt.
“They start with an idea that seems kind of wacky, off-the-wall. But through litigation and simply repeating it in the political sphere, they kind of normalize the ideas,” Schwinn added. “That’s what I think is happening.”
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The world’s richest man seems to believe that American democracy can be bought by any rich dude in a cheese-wedge hat with a few million bucks to spare. On Sunday, Elon Musk handed out $1 million checks to two voters onstage in Green Bay, Wisconsin, as part of his campaign for Brad Schimel, the conservative favorite for Wisconsin’s Supreme Court. It may sound random, but this is a calculated political move: If Schimel wins the race, he could influence the court’s decisions on issues like abortion, congressional maps and labor issues in the near future. The fat checks are “to call attention” to the race, Musk told the audience. This race is “a super big deal,” because it might affect “the entire destiny of humanity,” the weird man wearing plastic cheese on his head pronounced.
“Easiest money you ever made!” Musk wrote on X this morning, literally pushing a get-rich-quick scheme. “You just need to get people in the state to hold a picture of @TeamSchimel (can be on a phone/device or paper) in one hand and go thumbs up with the other hand.” The money dumped into the contest so far underscores its importance: $80 million has been spent on the race on both sides so far, with nearly $20 million coming from Musk’s pockets alone. The election will be held on Tuesday.
The stakes are incredibly high. “This race is now a proxy battle for whether the American government at every level can be bought by oligarchs,” Ben Wikler, chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, told the New Yorker. “Either Democrats are back and the fight is on, or the Republican Musk-Trump colossus can come in and just flick people out of their way when they decide to put down their big bucks.” We know this playbook: Musk gave prospective Trump voters $1 million checks last year, which was hotly contested in court but was ultimately allowed to continue. Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, which is controlled 4-3 by liberals, declined to hear a request to stop Musk’s gimmick — without giving a reason. Crooked’s Jon Lovett recently traveled to Wisconsin to support liberal favorite Susan Crawford against Schimel. Check out the interview while they munched on Culver’s, which is making me very hungry. |
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National security adviser Mike Waltz hosted other Signal chats with cabinet members, including a discussion about a Russia-Ukraine peace deal, the Wall Street Journal reports. One person told the Journal that Trump would’ve fired Waltz if Signalgate had first appeared in a conservative outlet like Breitbart… but the president didn’t want to give the Atlantic any wins.
The stock market is freaking out (I mean, who among us) about Donald Trump’s imminent tariffs, set to be implemented on Wednesday. “I want it to be clear. The market does not like unknowns, and at the moment, we are sort of off the charts in our ‘unknowns’ inventory,” Mark Malek, chief investment officer at Siebert Financial, said in a note obtained by Axios. The “unknowns” inventory is the only place Trump operates these days, and I hate it!
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is being floated as a potential presidential candidate for 2028 and the spiritual heir to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). She’s not seeking out the mantle (unlike some people *cough Gavin Newsom cough*) but “she’s more not focused on running for president than she is uninterested in it,” a person close to her told Politico.
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GET IN ON THE ACTION
HEY Wisconsin! There is a SUPER important state supreme court election TOMORROW between a qualified judge named Susan Crawford and an Elon Musk-backed MAGA guy. This is the first major race since Trump won in November and will determine the majority on the Wisconsin supreme court. Get everything you need to vote or volunteer before TOMORROW, April 1st, at votesaveamerica.com.
Paid for by Vote Save America. You can learn more at votesaveamerica.com. This ad has not been authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
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Far-right French leader Marine Le Pen was barred from seeking public office for the next five years after being convicted on charges of misusing European Union funds. Wow, must be nice to have a robust legal system that holds corrupt far-right politicians accountable!
A giant hole in the ground behind a Lowe’s in New Jersey has been transformed into a new dinosaur museum — because it might be the site of a mass extinction event 66 million years ago. Some 100,000 fossils have been excavated from the site. The museum’s motto: “Discover the past, protect the future.”
Today is International Transgender Day of Visibility, and Americans are still celebrating and recognizing trans and nonbinary people despite Donald Trump’s attacks on the community. Trump “wants us to go and hide, and he’d be happy if we all disappeared,” Rachel Crandall-Crocker, the movement’s founder, told Axios. “That is not what we're going to do.”
Rock band Guster used its shows at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. over the weekend to protest the Trump administration's radical policies. For example: One member donned a rainbow-shaped hat during a song, and they changed the lyrics in a song from “I went down to the May parade,” to “I went down to the gay parade.” Rock on.
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Bonus: Thanks to everyone who sent kind messages telling me to actually log off and enjoy vacation last week. Here's a picture from the trip at Arches National Park. Go touch some grass, folks! |
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