Hacker News Reader

Comment by sigmoid10 | Hacker News Reader

[flagged]

Which will backfire spectacularly when Obama is re-elected.

You can’t get elected if you don’t count the votes. That requires a joint session of congress. If due to an unprecedented emergency the congress cannot come into session there’s no clear rule what happens.

Any number of emergent events may create an emergency preventing the congress from gathering. The congress are collaborators and the Supreme Court is compromised.

> If due to an unprecedented emergency the congress cannot come into session there’s no clear rule what happens.

For instance if hundreds of people are rioting and breaking into the capitol building.

That's what they were trying to do on Jan 6.

I was under the impression that the 20th amendment would still terminate his term on January 20th, noon. In the absence of an elected president, the line of succession as defined in the Presidential Succession Act would kick in, meaning you got a Speaker of the House becoming president (if one exists), and if not, the Senate's president pro tempore.

Not entirely sure where you see murky and undefined situations...

Trump was giddy at that Zelenskiy meeting a few months ago, when he heard elections were suspended in Ukraine due to the war. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bvUBtdHw3g4 Said something like "So, if in 3.5 years, we are in a war... no more elections. Oh, that's good."

If that happens then Trump doesn't get to stay president, the 20th amendment means his term ends regardless.

Yeah, and who's going to force the issue? The minute someone kicks over a trashcan it'll be declared as the latest national emergency and the loyal forces of law and order will be told to terminate whiny radicals in sight. Would you have believed anyone who told you five years ago that there would be masked federal cops snatching people off the street in broad daylight by 2025?

The 5th Amendment means everyone has the right to due process, but it means nothing if the government refuses to adhere to it.

We're currently seeing people being denied due process as a matter of federal policy all over the US.

That would trigger a real civil war.

Which would further delay any chance of a transition of power.

More and more it looks like that is what he wants.

It would trigger his removal.

How?

If it were to happen, I fully expect the supreme court to contort itself for a bespoke ruling that only applies under the current set of circumstances, favoring a very specific candidate and no one else.

It's already happened:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45663333

The constitutional amendment that GOP have put forward specifically prohibits any president who previously served two consecutive terms. (they had already thought this through, it literally only allows Trump three terms)

  “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than three times, nor be elected to any additional term after being elected to two consecutive terms, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-joint-res...

They can't possibly believe that they'll get 37 states to ratify it in the next three years to make it all square and legal. Their only plausible path is some very tortured Supreme Court ruling.

What makes you think Obama will be allowed to run?

They already thought of that. He won't:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45663333

Reminder that the President's legal team argued that he could have his political rivals executed by SEAL Team 6 and the Supreme Court was like "yep!" and ruled in his favor.

Look at the options they are actually evaluating. This is not about an actual election or changing amendments (which even they admit is unlikely) and more playing the system using never before used tricks to have Trump in the chair again after the dust settles.

I get the impulse and it would be amusing, but I have a feeling people are sick of "dynasty" Dem candidates for president (Hillary after her husband, Biden/Harris after each being VPs.) Feels like his legacy and appeal has kind of faded too. He was an exciting first-time candidate and good-enough incumbent, but third term?

Hillary sure, but they explicitly said Obama, not Clinton.

Nominating a VP as President isn’t dynastic, it’s been common practice for centuries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_vice_presidents_of_the...

Something about powerful people handing power down being common practice for centuries seems dynasty-like to me.

Handing your own power down to yourself — as is the case when a VP wins the primary and presidency, or Obama running for a third term — is not a “dynasty”.

If they do this approach they will surely say that the constitutional limit is two consecutive terms, and since Trump's two terms were non-consecutive, he's still eligible to run again.

They already did, 9 months ago:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45663333

No, the approach will be to put Trump second on a ticket as vice president, and then have the top name on the ticket abdicate on day one.

The constitution says he can’t be elected president, but on an extremely pedantic reading, it doesn’t say he can’t be elected vice president.

Ain't gonna happen. It would actually trigger a civil war.

A civil war would need the military command to split up and take sides. Otherwise it will just be more soldiers getting sent to "disobedient" districts - like we have already seen. And they are also actively working on pruning military command to solidify the loyalist faction.

and what about him openly stating how he's considered declaring martial law to suspend elections?

an apt comparison I saw elsewhere is that the left side of the aisle is acting like the opposing team from Air Bud: "hey, a dog can't play basketball, it's against the rules!!" meanwhile, the dog is making shots over and over again.

"declaring martial law to suspend elections?"

This would also absolutely trigger a civil war.

i don’t think we should lull ourselves into complacency with projected certainties. if you listen to right-wing discourse, you’d know there is an not insignificant contingent of folks that are very okay with that path

Which is why it would trigger a civil war. Republicans will destroy democracy in the US before accepting defeat but the rest of us are not going to lie down and let them.

Who is going to lead? It's not as if we can all spontaneously take to the streets and start fighting the bad guys. It requires leadership, logistics, weapons, planning, and about a thousand other things. A would be leader would be taken out immediately. Realistically, the most feasible way a two-sided civil war happens is if a number of generals revolt. That's a big if. Soldiers need to eat and get paid. Who's going to do that? Otherwise, it's just the government - aka the orange lunatic with all the guns and money - running roughshod over everyone.

The most optimistic scenario would be an open and overwhelming revolt at all levels of government and forcing him to leave simply because there's nobody left who will obey. After that, we would need to return to some semblance of sanity and amend the constitution to prevent anything like this from happening again. It requires a competent Congress with principles and conviction. Furthermore, it requires massive public support. Unfortunately, about 30% of the population is eager to support the orange bastard and watch the world burn.

The country will be dealing with the fallout of this POS for the next 150 years, assuming the country even lasts that long.

The military would NOT support a third term for Trump. They swear to uphold the constitution and the constitution clearly says no president can serve for more than two terms. Same with any other tricks they try to pull that would let Trump still be president in 2029.

That’s the assumption and I hope it’s correct. We are in uncharted territory though. He’s been actively purging non-loyalists and punishing his foes. This is the dictator playbook and my fear is that he will be completely entrenched by the time anyone realizes he needs to be forced out.

The dictator playbook can't work with the way the US military is structured around loyalty to the constitution and not a person and Trump can't change that. I would estimate 90% of all officers despise him and basically none of them will support him in blatantly violating the constitution.

That was always my belief too. Now I'm less sure than I used to be. I hope you're right.

Do you actually envision the military accepting a third Trump term when it directly violates the constitution? It would be a violation of their oath.

touching back on this -

United States senators are openly admitting that they are determining ways to "work around" the constitutionality [0].

Pair that with continued purges of non-loyalists by SecDef, and yeah - this is a potential reality we cannot afford to dismiss offhandedly.

0. https://packaged-media.redd.it/57z4o0bjr1yf1/pb/m2-res_480p....

For those that don't want to believe this, here's a primary source:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyrWkIEW8AQJOHN?format=jpg

This is the trolling equivalent of "embrace, extend, extinguish." They are mocking the people who believe it by amplifying it, making Trump 2028 merch, etc.

That's what they said about the "Mass Deportations Now" signs at the RNC 2024 campaign events.

No, they pretty openly campaigned on that.

Trump was shot while the slide showing the illegal border crossing chart under the Biden admin and talking about how much work it was going to be to send everyone back.

I agree, I'm talking about the disingenuous double talk they'd give when pressed, anyone who made a big deal about it was overreacting, it's just a joke (but not really) to trigger liberals, haha look at how upset you're getting, etc.

I don’t ever remember deportations being a joke. From Laken Riley and more it was probably the most serious campaign point.

There were a lot of jokes around things that will never happen, like a 3rd term.

I personally think Trump will be too old to run, but I don’t think for a second they won’t try to run him if he’s able. They always start by making it a “joke”.

Haha, only serious?

Yes. Even sent a bunch of Trump 2028 hats to Gavin Newsom.

https://nypost.com/2025/08/28/us-news/trump-supporters-troll...

>Don't be fooled by this pretense. MAGA republicans are already actively working towards getting him another term

Yes, he's in such excellent health, I can definitely see him living (and non-comatose!) long enough for that.

I’m surprised he is vertical. He acts like how Biden looks.

I expect him to be walled off from external appearances within some amount of time so he can focus on truly important projects. Like redesigning the lawn. Or the amount of gold leaf on everything.

My real question, if/when that happens, who is pulling the strings with the most sway?

Vought and Miller

>My real question, if/when that happens, who is pulling the strings with the most sway?

I think it's evident that no one is in firm control. The Elon Musk fallout was that... Musk overreached or miscalculated, and one of the other contenders saw the opportunity to oust him. But I don't think that contender has consolidated his hold yet, Trump's too flighty. The answer could be changing day to day, depending on which asshat manages to ambush him first (or best) as they walk to the meeting room.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com