Alarming terminology: I am increasingly of the belief this president cannot be trusted to leave office at the end of his second nonconsecutive term. I believe he will either ask Congress to invalidate the 2020 vote, which he has repeatedly called rigged, or use his executive and judiciary power in an attempt to extend his mandate. If these avenues fail, I am concerned he will attempt to engineer a federal or state-by-state referendum on the need for him to continue based on national security, perhaps framed in alarmist language. I do not think he will be deterred either by the Constitution’s term limits or by legal challenges. In calling the 2020 vote fraudulent (rigged, he now says, by China), he will point out that he was prevented from serving two consecutive terms, a failure that would be addressed by being allowed to serve two terms beginning in 2024. He will also assert that Congress was lenient toward a Democrat, Franklin Roosevelt, in allowing him to serve four consecutive terms before introducing constitutional limits. All this will be further abetted by those Americans who know little of basic civics and perceive domestic and international law as malleable, something this president’s actions have already borne out. They will place personality ahead of the constructs of governance.

Those who disagree with me insist the president’s focus on 2020 conspiracy theories is but a smokescreen to distract the public from his waning popularity, particularly in light of the war in Iran, the still-obfuscated Epstein files, and domestic economic woes. Still others believe he has no intention of seeking a third term, instead hoping for a Democratic Party victory so he can blow his own horn. Much of this may sound like political science fiction, but if this president has proved anything, it is that Truth, literally, is stranger than fiction.