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Trump hints at third presidential term again, says he'll negotiate the extra tenure as he's 'entitled to it'

In August, the embattled incumbent told a rally in Wisconsin that he deserved an extra term at White House since his 2016 campaign was spied on

President Donald Trump on Saturday, September 12, made his critics more anxious once again by saying at a campaign in Nevada that he will “negotiate” a third term because he is “entitled” to it. It was in less than a month that the president indicated the same. In August, Trump said at a rally at Oshkosh in Wisconsin that he deserved eight additional years at the White House claiming his campaign was spied on in 2016, something the FBI dismissed in May last year. 

Speaking at the Minden-Tahoe Airport, the maverick incumbent told his cheering supporters most of whom did not care to wear masks or observe social distancing: “Fifty-two days from now we’re going to win Nevada, and we’re gonna win four more years in the White House.”

“And then after that, we'll negotiate, right? Because we’re probably — based on the way we were treated — we are probably entitled to another four after that.” His supporters yelled “four more years” and “we love Trump” while waving signs that showed words like “peaceful protesters” -- something Trump has been describing his rallies as. 

Trump lost Nevada to Hillary Clinton by less than three percentage points in 2016 and will look to win the state that has not voted a GOP presidential candidate to win since 2004. 

Trump was impressed after Xi Jinping became lifetime president of China

The president expressed his alarming idea even before but he also claimed that those were only jokes. For example, in November 2018, Trump was forced to say that he wouldn’t be pushing for additional four years beyond the stipulated two after he praised his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping over becoming a lifetime president. 

“He’s now president for life, president for life. And he’s great,” Trump said, according to an audio of excerpts of Trump’s remarks at a closed-door fundraiser in Florida which was aired by CNN. “And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot someday.”

The president told Fox News’ Chris Wallace after the clip surfaced that he would not seek a third term and said the constitutional limit on the tenure of the presidency is “not a bad thing”. But he continued to reiterate on various occasions thereafter that he deserved to serve more than two terms, something that hasn’t happened in the history of the presidency since the death of FDR in the middle of his fourth term in 1945. The 22nd Amendment of 1951 has restricted the presidential term to two terms. 

In April 2019, Trump told his supporters that he might remain in the Oval Office "at least for 10 to 14 years". His remarks came the same day special counsel Robert Mueller III’s report on Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election was released to the public. In December last year, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, an ally to Trump, said the latter is eligible for serving a third term and even claimed that he has been asked to head the president's re-election campaign in 2024.

In Nevada, Trump also took on his presidential opponent Joe Biden at the Minden rally, calling him once again the “worst candidate in the history of presidential politics”. He also said the former vice president doesn’t know he is alive.

Trump is trailing Biden in all major polls but has shown confidence over his win. He said the only way by which he could lose the November election is if the Democrats “rig” it. He targeted the idea of mail-in voting once again and said his opponents will use it to cheat. Calling mail-in voting as the “greatest scam in the history of presidential politics”, the GOP leader said the Democrats were sending ballots “to dogs”. “Everybody is getting ballots. Probably everybody but Republicans,” he claimed.