Donald Trump flirted with the idea of serving three terms as president — a clear violation of the U.S. Constitution — during a bombastic speech to the National Rifle Association, in which he vowed to roll back gun safety measures greenlit during the Biden administration.
“You know, FDR 16 years – almost 16 years – he was four terms. I don’t know, are we considered a three-term term? Or two terms?” The ex-president and Republican Party frontrunner said at the organization’s annual convention in Dallas, prompting some in the crowd to shout “three!” Politico reported this.
Trump has suggested a third term in previous comments, even mentioning an extended presidency during his 2020 campaign. He has also tried to distance himself from this idea, telling Time Magazine in April: “I wouldn’t consider one at all to be in favor of. I plan to serve four years and do a great job.”
The 22nd Amendment, passed after Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s fourth term, limits the presidency to two terms.
In his speech to the NRA, Trump spoke about abortion and immigration and criticized Robert F Kennedy Jr. as part of the ‘radical left’. He also complained about the many criminal cases against him, including a gag order prohibiting him from commenting on witnesses in his ongoing criminal trial in New York City.
Trump has the support of the NRA, but the organization has been reeling from legal and financial problems lately and is no longer the force in American politics it once was.
The NRA is holding its convention less than three months after its former leader Wayne LaPierre — as well as other group executives — were found liable in a lawsuit that focused on the organization’s excessive spending.
Trump, who said he heard gun owners “don’t vote,” urged NRA members to go to the polls in November: “Let’s be rebellious and vote this time, okay?”
The Biden administration has made efforts to curb gun violence, including a host of executive actions and the launch of the first federal agency to prevent gun violence, Politico noted.
Biden has also pushed to broaden background checks when purchasing guns, and to end a solution that allows firearms to be sold without background checks outside of traditional retail stores.
“If the Biden regime gets four more years, they will come for your guns,” Trump railed.
Only 12% of Americans believe gun laws should be relaxed, while 56% say they should be tightened and 31% say they should be kept as they are, according to an October poll conducted by Gallup.
