As a Democrat, I Want Trump To Run Again | Opinion

President Donald Trump has been openly embracing the idea of seeking out a third term, despite being expressly prohibited from doing so by the 22nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Many Democrats see this as a further sign of Trump's lawlessness and his willingness to openly flout the Constitution. It may be. Or it may just be Trump needling us.

Yet, bluff or no bluff, let's call him on it. Let's change the Constitution and have him run again in 2028—in free and fair elections.

There are two good reasons to do this. First, the 22nd Amendment is senseless and anti-democratic. Harry Truman, who was president when it passed (but it did not apply to) saw it that way, calling the amendment "stupid" and "one of the worst that has been put into the Constitution."

Esteemed constitutional law professor Sanford Levinson has a similar view. In his book, Our Undemocratic Constitution, he argued that the 22nd Amendment makes every president serving a second term a lame-duck who can essentially act with impunity because he or she won't have to stand for election again. He also points out that the amendment could prove troublesome if a popular president is serving in the middle of a war, such as was the case during FDR's terms.

The American people should have the final say on who they want for president, which is why the two-term limitation, like other limits on who can run for president—no one under 35, only "naturalized" citizens—is frankly silly. Let us decide.

Now, I definitely do not want Donald Trump to be president again. In fact, I don't want him to be president right now. But he is, and he's proving, unfortunately, to be the exact type of disaster that was easily predicted—restricting free speech on college campuses, having ICE abduct visa holders who have committed no crimes, abandoning Ukraine in its time of need, unilaterally starting a tariff war, and allowing RFK Jr. to dismiss scientists who could help battle the next pandemic—to name just a few things.

We're also seeing how Trump could be leading us into a recession. Economists have pointed not only to the tariffs Trump is implementing but also the high level of uncertainty he's creating for businesses with his unpredictable and often irrational shifts in policy. As former governor of the Federal Reserve Frederic Mishkin told Newsweek, "The degree of uncertainty with this administration on everything is astronomical."

So far, that uncertainty has led to a roller-coaster stock market that has fallen about 5 percent since Trump took office. Not a good start.

Also worth noting is the fact that if Trump were to run again, he would be 82 years old upon starting a third term. Even Americans who may like him could see that as a troubling prospect. After all, look what happened with President Joe Biden when it became clear that he had lost a step. And Trump is already showing signs of fatigue, handing off many of his decisions to Elon Musk.

This brings us to the second—and more important—reason why I want the president to run again—I want another chance to defeat not just Trump, but Trumpism. The Democrats lost an election to someone with autocratic tendencies who has expressed endless racist, bigoted, and misogynistic beliefs. Yet the lesson his re-ascendancy teaches our children is that morals do not matter, and that lying, bullying, and greed work.

I want to defeat those notions. Trump talks about "making America great again," but American greatness is exemplified not by our power but by our compassion. If we're to prove ourselves great again, it should be by atoning for our mistake and defeating all that Trump stands for.

I'm not implying this will be easy. Trump is already making efforts to skew elections in his favor and Republicans seem game for continuing to cut off access to the ballot. And there's always the risk that Trump will dupe the American people again somehow.

But it's worth the risk. Because while Trump may be irredeemable, we as a country are not.

Ross Rosenfeld is a frequent political writer. Follow him on Bluesky and check out his Substack.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.