Will Trump become 'double president'? POTUS can run for 2024 election using legal loophole if he loses to Joe Biden
Although votes are still being tallied in some of the key battleground states of the United States that could ultimately determine the outcome of the 2020 elections, even more than 24 hours after the election night, Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden has gained a lead against the incumbent President Donald Trump, as he pushes toward the threshold of 270 electoral votes required to secure the Oval Office for the next 4 years. While this is bad news for Trump supporters, people who are against the POTUS also cannot heave a sigh of relief as the US constitution paves the way for Trump to run for president in a 4-year period even if he loses to Biden this year.
The loophole in the 22nd Amendment in the constitution - which states that "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice," staying mum on the fact whether the two terms must be held consecutively - has been taken advantage of by only one president in the U.S. history - Grover Cleveland. He has often been termed "double president" as after the 22nd president of the United States lost to his Republican opponent, Benjamin Harrison in 1888, Cleveland ran again for the post and ended up becoming the 24th president in 1892.
As a result, if Trump were to be defeated by Biden in the 2020 election - the result of which is still up in the winds what with an unusually high number of mail-in ballots still to be counted in tight races in key swing states - he could technically have a go at it again in 2024 when, if Biden wins this time, he is most likely to seek reelection. It is important to remember that he will be 78 years old for the 2024 election if he were to contest again, which is a year older than Biden at the moment.
President's former adviser Bryan Lanza said that Trump should be careful not to tarnish his reputation in the party as he could very well run after four years as the Republican Party will most likely be unable to find a successor as capable as him. Speaking to Today, he said, "Everybody thought this was going to be a blowout election. We were talking about a double-digit lead, we were talking about an Electoral College landslide and we're far from that. If I'm advising the President and, occasionally, we have conversations I would say to him, 'Sir, you are in a good position right now, if you come up short, to run again in four years. So let's watch our way on the way out to make sure you don't damage a potential race four years from now."
He also suggested that if Trump were to run again, no GOP candidate would dare run against him "There's nobody in the Republican Party that can challenge President Trump in a Republican primary," he added. "He's got the apparatus, he's got the support. If he were to lose a very tight election today, he could make the claim that it wasn't a fair and free election and the media interfered with their interference polls. He can make a strong case to run again and I think the Republicans would step aside and let it happen."
However, former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci has suggested the president will avoid running a third presidential race should he lose to Biden. He said: "I only know what's reported in the papers but if he's got a billion dollars in outstanding debt if you're the sitting president it's probably a little bit easier to negotiate that debt. Although it would be a violation and a conflict of interest as a result of the presidency. He's not running in 2024. We can have that debate when it comes. I said back in January he would lose this election. Everybody said to me, 'no he's 100 percent going to win the election'. I said, 'I know the guy. The guy is crazy'."
The president’s former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon has claimed that Trump might as well be keen on running again with the hopes of having a go at Biden again if he were to lose this time. Bannon told The Australian: "I'll make this prediction right now: If for any reason the election is stolen from or in some sort of way Joe Biden is declared the winner, Trump will announce he's going to run for re-election in 2024. You're not going to see the end of Donald Trump."
Some political experts have suggested that the very existence of the GOP would hang in balance if Trump was no longer in the White House. "Whether in three days or in three years, the Republican Party will have to grapple with the basic question: Does the GOP exist without Trump? Not his message, not his policies, but Trump himself," former Trump Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur, told The Daily Beast on Monday, before Election Day. "It's like asking if the John Wick franchise works without Keanu Reeves."
Trump has already admitted that does not like losing, especially to Biden, going as far as to suggest that he will relocate to another country if his Democratic opponent won the election. He jokingly said in his Georgia rally on October 16, that he might have to leave the country if he loses to “the worst candidate” in the “history of politics”. “I will deliver optimism, opportunity and hope, and that’s what we’re doing, and this is why we have this kind of spirit, and I hate to say it because I don’t want to insult Georgia, but it’s this way all over our country,” Trump addressed a cheering crowd.