President Donald Trump was called out after he told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Japan that he would "love to" run in the next election and shut down rumors he'd be on the Republican ticket as Vice President.
The 22nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution clearly states that “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.”
But Trump appeared undeterred, telling reporters the following while in the same breath shutting down rumors he'd be on the Republican ticket as vice president:
"We have great people. I don't have to get into that. We have JD, obviously, the Vice President. He's great. I think Marco's great. I'm not sure anybody would run against these two. I think if they formed a group, it would be unstoppable."
"I would love to do it. I have the best numbers ever. Am I not ruling it out? You'll have to tell me."
He then pivoted to attacking Democrats, particularly Representatives Jasmine Crockett of Texas and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and bragged about acing a cognitive exam used to assess cognitive impairment, failing to understand that the higher your score, the worse the outcome.
He said:
"All I can tell you is we have a great group of people. They [Democrats] have Jasmine Crockett, a low IQ person. They have AOC's low IQ. You give her an IQ test... Have her take the exams I decided to take when I was at Walter Reed. They're cognitive tests."
"Let AOC go against Trump. Let Jasmine go against Trump. I don't think Jasmine... the first couple of questions are easier. A tiger, an elephant, a giraffe, you know."
"When you get up to about five or six and then you get up to 10 and 20 and 25, they couldn't come close to answering any of those questions."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Trump has previously suggested he might try to stay in office indefinitely—and people are taking him seriously, sounding the alarm and condemning his remarks.
Trump's words came just days after his former chief strategist-turned-MAGA-influencer Steve Bannon was criticized after revealing that Trump has a "plan" to get a third term as president.
Bannon, speaking with The Economist, said "Trump is gonna be president in '28, and people just sort of [need to] get accommodated with that." Bannon also referred to Trump as "an instrument of divine will" and "a vehicle of divine providence," suggesting that God meant for Trump to have another term.
He also denied that giving Trump a third term would turn the U.S. into a quasi-dictatorship, insisting—despite previously saying that there is "a plan" to circumvent constitutional norms—that he will have won a third term with the support of the American people, which he said "is what the Constitution embodies."
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