In the 2024 presidential election, voters may decide to keep Joe Biden in office for the next four years. If they elect Donald Trump, though, he could be in office for ... well, much longer than that.
Trump tried to stay in the White House despite losing the 2020 election, going so far as to incite a mob attack on the U.S. Capitol to overturn the result. But when his constitutional term ended on Inauguration Day, he left. It’s a mistake he is not likely to repeat.
The 45th president did everything he could to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, a hallmark of American democracy for more than two centuries. In the end, he failed. But he and his confederates learned valuable lessons from the failure. Should he win this time, they’ll have four years to implement a plan to keep the presidency for as long as he wants.
Liz Cheney, who lost her House seat after turning against Trump, recognizes the danger. Asked if she thought he would try to stay in power permanently, she replied: “Absolutely. He’s already done it once.”
Just ask him. As president, Trump repeatedly spoke, in a somewhat jocular way, of staying around for a third term. But was he joking?
Trump’s authoritarian ambitions were no secret to those closest to him. His vice president, Mike Pence, said of Trump, “Anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be president of the United States.” Gen. Mark Milley, chosen by Trump to chair the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called him “a wannabe dictator.” Gen. John Kelly, who served him as White House chief of staff, said Trump “has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution and the rule of law.”
The former president has always admired ruthless tyrants, including Vladimir Putin (“genius”), China’s Xi Jinping (“a strong guy, tough guy”) and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un (“We fell in love”). He likes autocrats not in spite of their despotic nature but because of it.
Lately, he has also gone out of his way to emulate them — referring to his political opponents as “vermin,” declaring that Milley deserved to be executed and vowing to shoot shoplifters. In a pitch-perfect echo of Adolf Hitler, he accused migrants of “poisoning the blood of our country.”
Such remarks may be dismissed as nothing more than colorful language from a candidate unbound by stuffy political norms. But his vitriol is meant to create a sense of apocalyptic danger that requires draconian measures.
Jennifer Mercieca, a communications professor at Texas A&M University, told The New York Times: “Normally, a president would use war rhetoric to prepare a nation for war against another nation. Donald Trump uses war rhetoric domestically.”
Trump has also vowed to use the presidency for vengeance. “I am your retribution,” he told a crowd. In one interview, he elaborated: “If I happen to be president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I say, ‘Go down and indict them.’”
It would be vain to expect Republicans in Congress to force him out of the White House. Eight Republican senators and 139 House Republicans voted against certifying Biden’s victory. House Speaker Mike Johnson was an enthusiastic accomplice in Trump’s effort to stay in office, pushing the hollow claim that the election was stolen.
Trump administration officials such as Milley and then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper resisted his efforts to use the military to subvert the Constitution. Should he win another term, though, he would install lackeys eager to make the uniformed services his ultimate weapon.
On Jan. 3, 2021, Jeffrey Clark, then an assistant attorney general, was warned that if Trump refused to leave office, there would be “riots in every major city in the United States.” Clark replied, “That’s why there’s an Insurrection Act” — which authorizes the president to deploy the military to suppress disorder. Trump could go so far as to impose martial law and cancel the 2028 election.
It’s tempting to believe that no matter what Trump might do to stay in power, the Supreme Court would stand in his way. Maybe so. But we can’t assume that Trump would meekly submit to a ruling against him.
He could very well respond as President Andrew Jackson allegedly did when the court, led by its chief justice, upheld the rights of Native Americans: “John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it.” Trump may figure he can hunker down in the White House behind the fixed bayonets of the 82nd Airborne.
Most voters, and probably most Trump voters, have not considered how he could make himself president for life. Rest assured, Trump has. The time to stop him is not January 2029. It’s now.
Steve Chapman was a member of the Tribune Editorial Board from 1981 to 2021. His columns, exclusive to the Tribune, appear the first Thursday of every month. He can be reached at stephenjchapman@icloud.com.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
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