Looks like the lawyers got the Trump third-term talking points

All good conservatives know that the way to President Donald Trump’s heart is cold, hard cash—preferably several million dollars. But what if you don’t have several million dollars to spare, but you still want to display a toadying fealty to Trump? 

Well, good news: Banging the drum for a third term is free! 

The campaign to give the worst president in U.S. history a chance at another four years to really fuck up the country is picking up steam. Now, we’re a long way from what GOP Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee tried back in January, when he proposed a constitutional amendment that would, sheerly coincidentally, only apply to Trump. 

“No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than three times, nor be elected to any additional term after being elected to two consecutive terms,” his proposed amendment read.

But by September, what had seemed like just a suck-up bid for attention by a rabid back-bencher took hold of others much higher up, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune getting positively wriggly when asked whether Trump can just ignore the 22nd Amendment.

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At the moment, House Speaker Mike Johnson is pretending to have a spine, saying, “It’s been a great run. But I think the president knows, and he and I have talked about, the constrictions of the Constitution, as much as so many of the American people lament that.”

There are a lot of things the American people lament right now, but the lack of a third Trump presidency is not one of them. 

“The Trump 2028 cap is one of the most popular that’s ever been produced. And he has a good time with that, trolling the Democrats, whose hair is on fire about the very prospect,” Johnson added.

How dare Democrats not find the prospect of an autocratic president rapidly consolidating power and musing about a third term a hilarious little jest?

Let’s face it: The minute Trump tells him to figure out a way around the 22nd Amendment, Johnson will fall in line.

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Meanwhile, a friendly defense attorney is getting cute in the courtroom, and the Department of Justice is prepared to go along. 

Attorney Robert Olson remarked in his oral argument before the 6th Circuit on Monday that a new administration would be in place “in three years or seven years.”

And DOJ attorney Sean Janda immediately picked up what Olson was putting down. 

“As my friend on the other side said, three years in the future or seven years in the future,” Janda said.

This might have seemed like opposing counsel tweaking the government, calling out its obsession with violating the Constitution to prop up Trump, but that’s only because you don’t know who Robert Olson is.

In a Michigan case on firearm background check requirements, Olson is representing Gun Owners of America—the group that thinks the NRA is too liberal. Gun Owners of America isn’t actually in opposition to the government in any meaningful way in this case. The only question is whether the case is moot, since the Trump administration already relaxed gun laws in just the way that Gun Owners of America is asking for.

Olson’s firm routinely represents the group that—when it isn’t stumping for guns, guns, guns—serves as a sort of all-purpose weirdo amicus brief filer on behalf of whatever Trump wants, like illegally firing a Federal Trade Commission staffer or trying to change elections via executive order.

So Olson’s cute little quip wasn’t a gentle tweak; it was a suck-up move. And Janda knew exactly what to do: Make sure that everyone knows that you—an attorney representing the interests of the country, not Trump—think that the Constitution is really just a suggestion. 

Great job, buddy. Maybe you’ll be rewarded with a promotion in Trump’s third term, huh?

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