Trump's third term talk is a warning

DONALD Trump has never hidden his disdain for limits - legal, moral, or constitutional.

- CHRISTOPHER BUCKTIN

Now, he is testing the biggest limit of all: the two-term boundary of the American presidency.

In recent months, Trump has repeatedly suggested he could seek a third term in office, claiming there are “methods” to make it happen.

"I'm not joking,” he told supporters, a remark that caused alarm throughout Washington. It is a familiar pattern an outrageous claim framed as a jest, later pursued in earnest.

The US Constitution could not be more explicit.

The 22nd Amendment, passed in 1951 after Franklin D. Roosevelt's unprecedented four elections, caps presidents at two terms.

Yet Trump, now in his second term, has made a career of pushing constitutional boundaries and undermining the institutions meant to contain him.

To dismiss his talk of a third term as mere provocation would be a mistake.

Authoritarian leaders rarely seize power overnight. They normalise the unacceptable, softening public resistance until the extraordinary seems inevitable.