The Post's cartoonist Tom Toles takes Trump's "extended" presidency seriously.
"After having praised Chinese President Xi Jinping for doing away with presidential term limits in China, and watching his BFF, Russian President Vladimir Putin, getting sworn into a fourth term last week," writes Toles in place of an editorial cartoon, "President Trump has now floated the idea of an 'extension' for himself. Naturally it was mentioned in a semi-humorous way, but his crowd reacted quite seriously."
Trump "quipped" about this prospective horror at an Indiana rally in May (which Toles refers to), reported Business Insider, and in the Rose Garden in April. This appears to be an uneasily consistent quip for Trump.
Concludes Toles, "With recent polls showing a slight uptick of approval for Trump and for GOP chances in the fall, his plan may just be working. If you’re among those still laughing, the joke will soon enough be on you."
Come to think of it, I'm rather surprised congressional Republicans haven't pushed for such a constitutional amendment under Republican presidents, which, naturally, they would push to undo under any Democratic president — should there ever be one again — then back to a pro-amendment, and so on, if necessary. As Maureen Dowd observed yesterday, "Everything is plausible" since the advent of Trump, nothing is seriously unimaginable. The unthinkable horrors just keep on rollin'; the swamp has never been so deep or reptile-infested, and rarely has a kakistocracy been so perfectly defined. Trump in 2024? Might as well, if he's back in 2021. For there would be nothing left to salvage.