Attorney General Pam Bondi said in an interview this Sunday on Fox News that President Donald Trump is “probably finished” as commander-in-chief after his current term ends.
Bondi was speaking on Fox News Sunday with Shannon Bream when she was asked about Trump’s various remarks surrounding a third term in office.
“I wish we could have him for 20 years as our president, but I think he's gonna be finished probably after this term.”
When questioned on her use of the word “probably,” Bondi replied: “We’d have to look at the constitution.”
Bondi picked up on Bream’s use of the phrase “heavy lift” when describing what actions would need to be taken in order to remain in office past 2028.
“There are methods which you can use,” Trump insisted on NBC News in a telephone interview last Sunday.
That follows months of Trump making quips about a third term despite the clear constitutional prohibition on it. “Am I allowed to run again?” Trump joked during a House Republican retreat in Florida in January.
Just a week after he won the election last fall, Trump suggested in a meeting with House Republicans that he might want to stick around after his second term was over.
This time, Trump said last week, “I’m not joking.” But even some allies don’t believe that. “You guys keep asking the question,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Monday. And Trump is just “having some fun with it,” he said, “probably messing with you.”
Trump’s musings often spark alarm among his critics even when they’re legally impossible, given that he unsuccessfully tried to overturn his 2020 election loss and has since pardoned supporters who violently attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
But Trump, who will be 82 when his term ends, has also repeatedly said that this will be his last term. Trying for another also would flatly violate the Constitution. The current gambit seems more like a termed-out president trying to convince his party and the public that he could still be in power four years from now.
Senator Bernie Sanders was also asked about Trump’s future plans in an interview on April 6 on CBS News.
“The idea of a third term? Why not? They don't believe in the rule of law. They don't believe in the Constitution. So, yeah, I would take that seriously,” he said.
Elsewhere in her interview on Sunday, Bondi spoke about mass deportations taking place.
“The best thing to do is to get these people out of our country, and when that first plane left and landed in El Salvador, there were 261 reasons why Americans were safer,” the attorney general told Bream.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
