Clear and Present Danger, Even Without a Third Term

Chris Matthews says of President Trump "the man has to be stopped by somebody. And that means his Party."

His party obviously refuses to do so, which makes it all the more unfortunate that Matthews' read of the United States Constitution is accurate only in part. He maintains

We're founded on the principle of division of powers. Presidents cannot decide things. He cannot break through the Constitution. I mean, here's a President existence as President. That's a fact. And everybody knows it. But yet  he keeps saying "I may run again next time." I may run again for President and clearly that is a problem because he says he won the 2020 election. He decides what the Constitution will read. He acts like he can do everything.

Chris Matthews: We're founded on the principle of division of powers. Presidents cannot decide things. Here's a president who keeps talking about running for reelection in 2028. Everybody knows he's limited to a two-term existence as president. But yet he keeps saying, I may run… pic.twitter.com/44oxq1KWbS

— Blue Georgia (@BlueATLGeorgia) February 28, 2026

Division of powers is an important principle embedded in the Constitution or, as the 1973 Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision put it, something which exists within the penumbra of the Constitution. (And we know how that turned out in Dobbs 45 years later.)  Nonetheless, the document does not prohibit an individual from serving more than two terms as President. Instead,the Twenty-Second Amendment reads

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.

And so it was on February 25 that Trump administration officials announced

that the federal government would withhold $259 million in Medicaid funds to Minnesota, the latest effort by the federal government to pull funding from Democratic-led states as President Trump rails against a major welfare fraud scandal there.

Federal judges have blocked most of the Trump administration’s efforts to claw back funds from states like Minnesota, New York, California, Illinois and Colorado. The states have decried the cuts as politically motivated, adding that they would harm hundreds of thousands of people. The Trump administration has pointed to allegations of fraud to justify the cuts.

The latest action targeting Medicaid funds will almost certainly be challenged in court.

Although obviously unconstitutional, it may take awhile for that to go through the courts. And if lower court(s) decide against the regime, Mr. Trump will continue to act illegally until the matter has run its course, because of course he will. It's not Donald's first rodeo as

In January, the Trump administration moved to withhold funding for food stamps and other hunger relief programs in Minnesota. A federal judge blocked that order. The Department of Health and Human Services also tried to freeze $10 billion in funding for child care subsidies, social services and cash support for low-income families in Minnesota, New York, California, Illinois and Colorado. A federal judge blocked that order, too.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration again moved to withhold a smaller pot of Health Department funds that included grants aimed at curbing H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted infections. A federal judge blocked that move, and his order broadly enjoined the government from terminating public health grants “based on undisclosed agency priorities.”

The cuts to social and health care services came as Mr. Trump has fixated on allegations of fraud in Minnesota, claiming, without evidence, that similar large fraud schemes are playing out elsewhere in Democratic led-states.

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You and whose army? If the Administration decided to defy the courts in this or virtually any other matter, it is questionable he'd be blocked by the same U.S. Supreme Court which ruled in 2024 that the President can do whatever he wishes in his official acts and is completely immune in the "core" acts.

At some point, the regime will again the court(s) the figurative middle finger, as it came within hours of doing on April 7, 2025, until Chief Justice John Roberts let the Adminstration off the hook. Donald Trump has almost told us so, such as when in February of last year, he

posted on social media a single sentence that appears to encapsulate his attitude as he tests the nation’s legal and constitutional boundaries in the process of upending the federal government and punishing his perceived enemies.

“He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” Mr. Trump wrote, first on his social media platform Truth Social, and then on the website X.

By late afternoon, Mr. Trump had pinned the statement to the top of his Truth Social feed, making it clear it was not a passing thought but one he wanted people to absorb. The official White House account on X posted his message in the evening.

The quote is a variation of one sometimes attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, although its origin is unclear.

Nonetheless, the sentiment was familiar: Mr. Trump, through his words and actions, has repeatedly suggested that surviving two assassination attempts is evidence that he has divine backing to enforce his will.

He has brought a far more aggressive attitude toward his use of power to the White House in his second term than he did at the start of his first. The powers of the presidency that he returned to were bolstered by last year’s Supreme Court ruling that he is presumptively immune from prosecution for any crimes he may commit using his official powers.

The sentiment has become even more familiar. Whining yet again about losing the 2020 election, in December of 2022 Donald posted on Untruth Social

A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great 'Founders' did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!

And now, this:

Pro-Trump activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that claims China interfered in the 2020 election as a basis to declare a national emergency that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly previewed a plan to mandate voter ID and ban mail ballots in November’s midterm elections, and the activists expect their draft will figure into Trump’s promised executive order on the issue.

Peter Ticklin, the Florida lawyer advocating for declaration of national emergency, told the Post "we have a situation whee the President is aware that there are foreign interests that are interfering in our election processes. That causes a national emergency where the President has to be able to deal with it."

Asked about the idea, Donald replied "I've never heard about it." You're forgiven for having flashbacks to the 2024 presidential campaign, when in the debate with Kamala Harris, Donald maintained "I have nothing to do with Project 2025. I haven't read it. I don't want to read it purposely. I'm not going to read it." 

Project 2025, which turned out to be a blueprint for the Trump Administration, includes plenty of ideas to detonate free elections.  It's one more reason, a big one, that this man does have to be stopped by somebody, whether Donald Trump seeks to stay in office beyond January, 2029 or even if he doesn't make it through this term of office.

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