FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 6, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo
A retired conservative federal judge is urging Americans that President Donald Trump's talk of seeking a third term seriously.
During a Tuesday segment on MSNBC, former U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge J. Michael Luttig said that Trump entertaining a third term shouldn't be dismissed outright given how institutions have largely failed to keep him in check. He also said that despite the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution's ban on presidents being elected to more than two terms, it was unlikely that Congress and the Supreme Court would stop Trump.
"In the the tenmonths that he's been president,this time, he has ... seizedessentially an absolute andunchecked power in the United States of America that isunchecked by the two coordinatebranches of government," Luttig said.
"In America, thoughthe Constitution provides for asystem of checks and balanceson the powers of the threecoordinate branches in tenmonths, Donald Trump has seized — mostly unconstitutional or inviolation of the laws of the United States — all of the powerof the entire federalgovernment, including that ofthe Congress and the Supreme Court," he added.
Luttig — who retired from the bench in 2006 after being appointed by former President George H.W. Bush in 1991 — argued that Trump is the first president in history who has surpassed the Constitutional system of checks and balances. And he added that by cowing the other two branches of government into submission, Constitutional obstacles matter little to Trump.
"He sought that power. And atthis point, he possesses thatpower," he said. "And with that poweramassed for the first time in American history,unconstitutionally, there isnothing and no one who can stop Donald Trump from running forelection to an unconstitutionalthird term and being the nextpresident of the United States,notwithstanding the votes of the American people."
Earlier on Tuesday, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) suggested that a third Trump term could be in the cards, saying there would "have to be an evaluation from President Trump’s viewpoint to the Constitution" and that Americans shouldn't "ever close the book on President Trump." And former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon told the Economist last week that there was already a "plan" underway to have Trump serve for an illegal and unconstitutional third term.
Watch the segment below:
From Your Site Articles
- Judge Trump wants impeached has 'a lot in common' with one of his Supreme Court appointees ›
- Retired conservative judge says Trump repeating abuses of Britain before Revolutionary War ›
- Conservative judges turning against Trump — thanks to the Supreme Court: experts ›
Related Articles Around the Web