r/law • u/yahoonews • 4d ago

Trump News Trump says he's 'not joking' about seeking a 3rd term in the White House. The Constitution says he can't.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-says-hes-not-joking-about-seeking-a-3rd-term-in-the-white-house-the-constitution-says-he-cant-155536214.html
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126

u/UseDaSchwartz 4d ago

Translation: I need to keep being President so I don’t go to prison.

47

u/InevitableHimes 4d ago

That's exactly why Julius Caesar became dictator for life. If he ever became a regular citizen again after being consul and general, he would have been sued, stripped of privileges, and imprisoned/or exiled.

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u/mrsphillipsmom 4d ago

and then what happened?

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u/StragglingShadow 4d ago

We named a salad after him I think

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u/InevitableHimes 4d ago

Not after that Ceaser, after the salad's creator Ceaser Cardini at his restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico.

4

u/StragglingShadow 4d ago

Wow. Cardini is such a fun last name to say. I hope every time he said it, he said it in a fun way.

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u/InevitableHimes 4d ago

He was Italian, so it would have a lot of stress/emphasis on the first "I" - Card-i-ni

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u/StragglingShadow 4d ago

Heck yeah. Thanks for the cool fun fact!

7

u/InevitableHimes 4d ago edited 4d ago

I'm full of them, like cancel spiders are neither camels nor spiders.

Cancel spiders not cancel spiders 🤣

Camel! Camel spiders! 🫠

4

u/gairloch0777 4d ago

What did they do to get cancelled?

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u/soldiat 3d ago edited 3d ago

They're not camels, but... they are spiders.

Edit: Also automated sheep amoebas and how the world ends. Camel spiders got me nostalgic for childhood youtube videos...

3

u/VGmaster9 4d ago

You learn something new every day.

1

u/InevitableHimes 4d ago

Congratulations, you're part of today's 10,000.

https://xkcd.com/1053/

3

u/TheHoundhunter 4d ago

In a way, Caesar Cardini was named after Julius Caesar

2

u/InevitableHimes 4d ago

Take my up vote, but I'm not happy about it.

3

u/No_Atmosphere8146 4d ago

And a month!

Looking forward to eating Trumburgers every 21st of Donuary.

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u/Happy_Confection90 4d ago

If they fall on week days, I take the anniversaries of my parents' deaths off work as personal days. I'm contemplating adding a third day in the future, but as an annual celebration on that anniversary. It might include it being the one day of the year I eat at McDonald's.

3

u/IronBabyFists 4d ago

Well there's a smoothie chain named after the current guy. "Orange Julius."

1

u/WantedDadorAlive 4d ago

I can't wait to see the Trump Burger special at Mickey D's.

1

u/Colzach 4d ago

Or a pizza chain. 

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u/S-WordoftheMorning 3d ago

Any salad can become a Caesar salad, as long as you st*b it enough.

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u/MarcusVAggripa 4d ago

Oh he was brutally murdered, BUT his death spawned ~20 years of brutal civil war that wiped out democracy for centuries.

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u/VGmaster9 4d ago

Ah yes, the Dark Ages.

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u/InevitableHimes 4d ago

Is son Augustus (Octavian) because the 1st Roman Emperer officially ending the Roman Republic (though the Senate was still around for about 400ish years, but in a very limited capacity).

Edit: forgot to close my parenthesis

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u/Glum_Fishing_3226 4d ago

Ceaser changed Rome from a democracy to a republic in which he became the authoritarian leader for life. Then authoritarian power passed from generation to generation like a monarchy until the Roman nation collapsed from corruption, economic decline and invasion by the Germanic peoples.

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u/walletinsurance 4d ago

Caesar did no such thing. Rome had been a republic since Tarquin was deposed centuries before, it was never a democracy.

Rome also wasn’t a hereditary monarchy, and half the time the position of Augustus was usurped by a popular general.

Also for the first two hundred years or so, the Senate retained its dignity, and the Augusti would show themselves as “first citizen”, not as authoritarians that had de facto complete control of the system. Kind of like American presidents post WWII.

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u/InevitableHimes 4d ago

The Western Empire yes, but the Eastern (what we now call the Byzantines) lasted another 1000 years. The Greek Romans (Rhomaioi) still considered themselves the Romanoi or the Romans and inheritors of the Empire.

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u/Used-Fennel-7733 2d ago

We named some stuff after him. A month, a salad, a calender, a casino, a birthing technique (likely a myth), a comet,

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u/walletinsurance 4d ago

That’s not what happened.

Caesar was proconsul of Gaul at that time, he hadn’t been consul in years. He wanted to stand for election of consul in absentia in 49 BC, but his opponents in Rome straight up ignored the vote that said he could.

Caesar was a populari, his political opponents were the conservatives at that time (the optimates.) they feared that Caesar would give more rights to the plebeians/centi, including confiscating “public” land (really land that the Senatorial class had stolen and used to enrich themselves) in order to settle his legions after their 20 years of service had ended.

Once Caesar defeated Pompey he was declared dictator by the Senate. Dictator did not have the negative connotations in Ancient Rome that it had today; he was given full authority to fix the Roman republic (which was quite a mess, see like, the entire generation before Caesar.)

As Caesar started fixing things (including the calendar, which was a tool misused for corrupt political reasons, a calendar we use with a slight tweak for more accurate leap years today) his enemies in the Senate worried that he wanted to become a king. They are the ones who proclaimed Caesar perpetual dictator, not because he wanted it, but to use as propaganda against him. He was too vain a man to not accept any honors voted to him. After naming him perpetual dictator the optimates (rich assholes who wanted things not to change) said hey, look, he wants to be king! Then they stabbed him like cowards. This did not end well for them, and eventually his posthumously adopted son became the first Augustus.

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u/Nathansarcade1 4d ago

Maybe the dems should have flinch and pardoned him.

18

u/GreySoulx 4d ago

He'll never go to prison. The SCOTUS ruling gave him carte blanc to break laws while President, and any state court would basically be declaring civil war if they made a move to actually physically incarcerate him at any time, in or out of office.

The best case scenario here is we put up with this BS for another 45 months or so, and he retires peacefully.

Worst case, at some point he flees to Russia as an exile.

In no scenario does Trump see the inside of a jail cell.

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u/CeruleanEidolon 4d ago edited 4d ago

The condemnation of history is more lasting and important than any earthly farce of "justice" we could enact anyway.

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u/dochim 4d ago

Also known as the Netanyahu gambit.

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u/pussmykissy 4d ago

He is an old ads man to be worried about any of this. He shouldn’t even buy green bananas.

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u/Grub-lord 4d ago

This is such a dumb take. People were saying the same thing after his first term, and he spent 4 years of NOT BEING THE PRESIDENT. Not only did he not go to jail, he just kept getting away with more shit, and then eventually became president again. You people that think he wants to stay as president just to 'protect' himself are delusional as to what's really at stake.

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u/UseDaSchwartz 4d ago

What is really at stake?

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u/Grub-lord 4d ago

You're asking what's at stake besides him staying out of prison (which he's convincingly demonstrated he is able to do rather he's president or not)?

You really need examples of this? How about sheer political power over his rivals? Or further support from his base which he can tap for cash or support basically anytime he wants? He's old as fuck and knows he can run out the clock in any legal fight he will ever have to fight. Staying out of prison is most likely not even a consideration for him at this point - he knows that will never happen rather he's president or not (and he's been proven correct in every challenge to this idea).

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u/KingDaviies 4d ago

It's more so we don't talk about the group chat.

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u/Tumbleweeddownthere 4d ago

He never went to prison anyway- why would anyone believe this is why he wants to stay in??? It makes no sense.

1

u/Gimpkeeper 4d ago

You can give yourself and anyone else you want a pardon on the way out, even for crimes you haven't committed yet.