How Jokey Speeches Steer the Country
The Third Term Punch Line
I see the president at a rally.
He is relaxed.
He begins with the jokey cadence popularized by the late comedian Bob Hope. It goes:
Blah da blah da blah da blah. da bleeh … [count 1,2,3,4] … [Punch line!]
Then “I gotta tell ya folks…” (Or:: “Don’t you think so?”)
The president saves any screamingly objectionable, screamingly absurd ideas, often humorous, for the punch line.
Wait! What?
My father’s lone humor advice: a joke’s funny only once. So, a day or so later, the president repeats the idea in a marginally more grown-up tone.
Compliant cabinet members and select members of the House repeat it as an observation that, if you think about it, has some merit.
Steve Bannon, Joe Rogan, Fox News, and others mention it ad infinitum and argue for it.
Noting that officials are bringing it up, responsible media accurately report that the idea is being talked about and gaining support. It is not absurd anymore.
And then everyone, friend and foe, accepts it as either a serious proposal or a threat to be strenuously opposed.
To wit:
November 14, 2024 (Vanity Fair): “I suspect I won’t be running again—unless you do something,” Trump told a crowd of giddy House Republicans, as he took a victory lap in Washington the day after the election. “Unless you say, ‘He’s so good, we have to just figure it out.’”
Jan 24, 2025 (NewsNation): “Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn. proposed an amendment to the US Constitution that would allow President Donald Trump to serve a third term in the White House.”
January 31, 2025 (Politico): “How Trump Could Snatch a Third Term”
February 13, 2025 (Fortune): “Trump keeps joking about a third term. Here’s what the Constitution says”
https://fortune.com/2025/02/13/trump-keeps-joking-third-term-what-the-constitution-says/
March 30, 2025 (NBC News): “Trump won’t rule out seeking a third term in the White House. He tells NBC News ‘there are methods’ for doing so”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-third-term-white-house-methods-rcna198752
April 1, 2025 (New York Times): “The Strategy Behind Trump’s Repeated Musings About a Third Term”
“He has floated it publicly and privately, and on Sunday, he said he was “not joking” about it. In an interview with NBC News, he insisted there were “methods” to circumvent the two-term limit set out by the 22nd Amendment.”
The Times guesses his shrewd purpose is to “freeze the field of potential successors who might steal the spotlight from a lame duck.”
April 6, 2025 (Yahoo News): “President Trump on running for a third term: ‘There’s a way you can do it”
“I think he’s probably having some fun with ya” – Senate Majority Leader John Thune
April 15, 2025 (Salon): "‘He's going to have a third term’: Bannon tells Maher Trump is sticking around in 2028.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/hes-going-third-term-bannon-183155151.html
April 15, 2025 (Newsweek): “Donald Trump Eligible to Run for Third Term, Half of MAGA Republicans Say”
“A SurveyUSA poll shows that the president's supporters agree he could seek a return to the White House in 2028.”
April 20, 2025 (Reddit post): “Trump will be president for a third term”
“With the conversation about a Trump third term picking up steam now that he acknowledged that he's not joking about it and that his team is …”
Supporters then get creative:
· The amendment doesn’t apply to the president because his terms haven’t been consecutive
· The Constitution says you can’t be elected three times. It doesn’t say you can’t serve three times. Trump runs in 2028 as JD Vance’s vice president. They win. Vance resigns. Trump becomes president again.
· Amend the Constitution.
Opponents get audited, receive frightening phone calls or texts, and/or are flipped off in public.