According to longtime political observer Jonathan Alter, the moment Donald Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20, the clock begins ticking on his hold of power since he will be widely regarded as a lame-duck president.
Speaking with MSNBC host Charles Coleman Jr. on Saturday morning, Alter said that the president-elect stands no chance of running for a third term on 2028 despite speculation that he might attempt it, and lawmakers won't have to go along with every demand he makes.
As he explained, "In the short and middle term I think he'll be held to account for all sorts of campaign promises. If he is not successful in lowering prices, as he promised he would do, and if his tariffs and other policies contribute to renewed inflation, he will be judged very harshly on that."
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"But remember, he's not a candidate for reelection," he pointed out. "He becomes a lame duck on January 20th. I know people talk about him getting around the 22nd Amendment and being in office forever –– that's not going to happen."
"His political power will start to ooze out of him, and a lot of the accountability will be reflected first in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections this coming year and then in the 2026 midterms," he elaborated. "But if he ends up governing with a billionaire boys club -- he's already appointed 12 billionaires -- that's not what he promised. He promised to look out for middle-class working families and if his policies include deep cuts to very popular programs or other things that don't really seem to resemble the populist promises that he made during the campaign, his popularity is going to suffer."
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