THE WORLD SHOULD ACKNOWLEDGE THE ILLEGITIMACY OF A TRUMP THIRD TERM

We're just allowing this to happen:

President Trump refused to rule out an unconstitutional bid for a third presidential term on Monday....

Steve Bannon, a MAGA podcaster and former Trump adviser, turned heads in a recent interview with the Economist by suggesting there was "a plan" for Trump to stay in office....

When pressed if he would rule out a third term, he replied, "Am I not ruling it out? You'll have to tell me."

Here are the words I want to hear from a Democrat in response to this:

"Donald Trump cannot be president on January 21, 2029, or any day thereafter. The words of the Constitution are unambiguous: 'No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.'

"I recognize that Donald Trump might still be sitting in the Oval Office after his term expires, because of his own brazen lawlessness and the complicity of a supine Congress and a partisan Supreme Court. We have seen so many grotesque violations of the law and the Constitution in just the past nine months that we know any depravity is possible from Trump and his enablers.

"But if he is in the Oval Office after his term expires, then America will have an illegitimate government. No nation on earth should recognize it. None should accept Trump as America's legitimate president. No state in the union, no city or town, should recognize him as legitimate. No one should feel legally obligated to send tax revenues to Washington, or to recognize federal law. No federal office in any state in the union should be allowed to remain open. Permitting a man who is not legally qualified to remain in office as president is an act of war against the Constitution. If it happens, America as we have known it for 250 years will no longer exist.

"There are many people who believe the government of the United States is already lawless and illegitimate. It's easy to understand that perspective. But Donald Trump was, at the very least, legitimately elected president in 2024. He cannot be legitimately elected in 2028. He cannot remain in office past the end of his term through any legitimate means.

If he prevents the 2028 presidential election from taking place, that is a lawless act. If he runs again, that is a lawless act. If he wins, through fair means or foul, that is a lawless act. If he remains in office through any other means, that is a lawless act.

"I call on every government to recognize this -- every foreign government, every state and local government. I call on every U.S. citizen to recognize this. Any 'plan' Donald Trump and his cronies might have to keep him office is a crime against the United States."

There is no legitimate workaround short of a constitutional amendment -- which could never be ratified by the necessary 38 state legislatures. (There are more than a dozen Democratic-leaning states where an amendment allowing Trump to run again would be dead on arrival.) And even Trump has ruled out running as vice president so he can become president after the person at the top of the ticket resigns. In any case, as Kevin Kruse notes, a vice presidential candidate needs to be eligible to be president in order to run for vice president -- "no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States," the 12th Amendment says.

I already believe the second Trump presidency is lawless and illegitimate, but it's understandable that this notion is not universally accepted. Democrats should make it clear, however, that seating a president in unambiguous defiance of the Constitution unquestionably delegitimizes the United States government.

I know this won't happen, but if it were to happen, it might change the conversation around the "Oh, isn't he cheeky?" mainstream narrative surrounding Trump's daily defiance of American law.