Trump Lawyer Seriously Explored Options for Third Term

Donald Trump has been looking at how to be president for a third term since at least October 2023.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Boris Ephsteyn, who worked in the White House in Trump’s first term and is now one of his personal attorneys, made the unfounded claim back then, during a meeting with an associate, that based on the law, he believed that Trump could run again in 2028.

Trump has asserted in recent weeks that he is “not joking” about staying in office past January 2029, when his second and final term is up, claiming that there are certain plans that would enable him to do so. Other White House officials are claiming it’s a nonissue, such as Karoline Leavitt last week, but only days later Trump contradicted her.

Others in the Trump orbit, such as Steve Bannon, think there’s merit in the idea, and some senior Republicans told the Journal that they believe him. Unnamed sources told the Journal that they see the lack of resistance from law firms, corporations, universities, and Congress as showing that he has the potential to bulldoze resistance to staying in office.

The Constitution bars presidents from being elected to more than two terms. Republican Representative Andy Ogles has introduced legislation to amend the Constitution to allow presidents to serve a third term if one is nonconsecutive. It would be a tall order, as a constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds vote from both the House and Senate, and ratification by three-fourths of the states. But Trump, unfortunately, has often found a way to get around checks to his power.

Elon Musk is on X trying to convince everyone that it was voter ID—and not the state Supreme Court race that he spent millions on—that mattered most, after conservative Judge Brad Schimel lost in Wisconsin to liberal Judge Susan Crawford on Monday night. 

“This was the most important thing,” the world’s richest man posted over the passing of Wisconsin’s voter ID amendment. This new spin goes against pretty much everything he’s said about the importance of the Supreme Court race since he started dumping time and money into it. 

“A Supreme Court election in Wisconsin might determine the fate of America,” Musk posted on X last Saturday. 

“This Wisconsin Supreme Court race might decide the future of America and Western Civilization!” he wrote on Sunday. “It’s a big deal.”

“Vote for Superjudge Brad Schimel in Wisconsin on Tuesday!! “ he posted, along with a very poorly animated image of Schimel. “The Republican House majority is razor thin and the Democrats want to redraw Wisconsin districts to flip the House and stop the government reforms. Super important to vote for Superjudge!!”

Musk even took his cheerleading offline. 

“The reason tonight’s elections are so important is that the judge race will decide whether the Wisconsin districts get redrawn, they’re gonna try to gerrymander Wisconsin to remove two Republican seats,” Musk said on Fox News Tuesday evening. “The House is currently Republican by a razor-thin margin, which means that losing this judge race has a good chance of causing Republicans to lose control of the House. If you lose control of the House, there will be nonstop impeachment hearings, there will be nonstop hearings and subpoenas … everything possible to stop the agenda that the American people voted for when they voted for President Trump.”  

A lot can change in a night. Now Musk is insisting that he “expected” to lose. “There is value to losing a piece for a positional gain,” he wrote on X at the crack of dawn on Wednesday. 

Musk was relentless in his support of Schimel. He appeared at a large rally wearing a cheesehead, paid canvassers $20 an hour to carry out an all-out door-to-door assault on Wisconsin voters, and handed out two $1 million checks, lottery-style, to people who signed his petition hating on liberal “activist” judges. He spent $25 million in total just to lose the race and pivot to saying that a secondary ballot initiative was actually the real prize. And for what it’s worth, Wisconsin has required voter ID for nearly a decade, it just isn’t a state constitutional amendment. That victory is marginal, at best. Schimel’s loss was a massive rejection of Musk and his infinite war chest.

Elon Musk came up short Tuesday when trying to buy a seat on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court—and he has no one to blame but himself.

In the state election, Judge Susan Crawford secured a whopping 55 percent of the vote, while the Musk-backed Judge Brad Schimel captured only 45 percent. While the position is nonpartisan, this election still determined the court’s ideological lean. Crawford was backed by Democrats, while Schimel was backed by Republicans.

Musk, and the groups linked to him, poured out more than $20 million to back Schimel, including $4.3 million into canvassing efforts. Musk had personally appeared in Wisconsin ahead of the election, donning a cheese hat and ranting about the end of Western civilization. He offered cash rewards of $100 for filling out his petition against activist judges, $20 for canvassing, and $1 million in a sweepstakes (which was won by spokespeople). Still, the billionaire bureaucrat was unable to close the gaping 10-point margin, and now, some are speculating that it was Musk’s attempt to interfere with the election that secured Crawford’s win.

Politico’s senior political columnist Jonathan Martin wrote in the DC Playbook Wednesday morning that Musk had actually made things far worse for the conservative candidate.

“The margin in the Wisconsin court contest indicates that by inserting himself into the race so personally, Musk undermined the GOP-aligned candidate. Democrats’ internal polling had Crawford leading, but not by the 10-point margin she will win once all of Milwaukee has been counted,” Martin wrote.

“Insisting on showing up to campaign in the final weekend of the campaign was self-defeating enough. But it’s hard to think of another state, besides neighboring Minnesota, that would be less receptive to handing out money for votes. These are high-turnout, healthy civic culture states. Musk may not have known that—but why didn’t any Republicans who did steer him away from the cash gambit?” he added.

More than $98 million was spent on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race, making it the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history. More than $67 million went to advertisements, according to AdImpact. Democratic advertisers spent $36 million, and Republican advertisers spent more than $31 million.

It seems that Musk’s ploy to pay for votes with cash didn’t resonate with Wisconsin residents. In fact, The New York Times’ swing map saw a major statewide shift to the left compared to the 2024 presidential election.

“Today Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy, our fair elections, and our Supreme Court. And Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price, our courts are not for sale,” Crawford declared in her victory speech Tuesday night.

While Musk was able to buy Donald Trump the presidency, it seems that he’s lost his touch. Musk’s messy work with the Department of Government Efficiency has tanked public opinion, while protesters across the country target their ire at the billionaire bureaucrat and his beloved Tesla dealerships. While his net worth plummets, Musk has taken to complaining about how hard he has it. Voters do not appear to be responding well.

“Please send @elonmusk to all the close races!” wrote Jon Favreau, former speechwriter and podcaster, in a post on X.

Donald Trump just made the rationale for his tariff “Liberation Day” crystal clear: revenge.

In a post on Truth Social late Tuesday, the president said that the tariffs were his administration’s “fight” against Democrats’ “wild and flagrant push to not penalize Canada for the sale, into our Country, of large amounts of Fentanyl, by Tariffing the value of this horrible and deadly drug in order to make it more costly to distribute and buy.”

Approximately 0.2 percent of American fentanyl seizures occur at the Canadian border, according to federal statistics.

But Trump’s aggressive rhetoric and high levies on Canada have practically shattered the two neighbors’ long-standing allyship. On Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that his country’s cozy relationship with the U.S. had come to an end, and that Canada would wean itself off American products and services “at speeds we haven’t seen in generations.”

Trump singled out four Republican senators in particular who have pushed back against his tariffs. “They are playing with the lives of the American people, and right into the hands of the Radical Left Democrats and Drug Cartels,” he said, referring to Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Rand Paul.

“The Senate Bill is just a ploy of the Dems to show and expose the weakness of certain Republicans, namely these four, in that it is not going anywhere because the House will never approve it and I, as your President, will never sign it,” Trump said. “Why are they allowing Fentanyl to pour into our Country unchecked, and without penalty. What is wrong with them, other than suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, commonly known as TDS?”

Trump and his allies have frequently accused anyone that critiques their work of being mentally ill, effectively undermining the legitimacy of critical thought in the groupthink of his already sycophantic base.

“Who can want this to happen to our beautiful families, and why? To the people of the Great States of Kentucky, Alaska, and Maine, please contact these Senators and get them to FINALLY adhere to Republican Values and Ideals,” Trump said. “They have been extremely difficult to deal with and unbelievably disloyal to hardworking Majority Leader John Thune, and the Republican Party itself. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Liberal Dane County Judge Susan Crawford was elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court Tuesday, crushing Elon Musk’s attempt to buy yet another election.

Decision Desk HQ called the race after just 36 percent of the vote had been counted. Crawford held a decisive lead over conservative Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel with 57.9 percent of the vote to his 42.1 percent.

Crawford’s win will ensure that the liberal majority on the court remains, as it tees up to weigh important questions about abortion, union power, election rules, and congressional maps.

Schimel has received more than $20 million from groups associated with Musk, including the more than $4.3 million Musk’s America PAC poured into the Schimel campaign’s canvassing efforts over the last eight weeks. Musk circulated a petition offering Wisconsin residents $100 to sign a statement condemning “activist judges” and giving them the chance to enter a $1 million sweepstakes.

At an America PAC event Sunday night in Green Bay, Musk gave away $1 million to a preselected spokesperson for the petition. Again, he offered people money to sign up to go door-to-door for him. “It’s … thumbs up and hold a picture of Judge Schimel. And that’s it, and you get $20,” Musk said, instructing them to take pictures as proof of their canvassing efforts.

As of Tuesday, more than $98 million had been spent in Wisconsin’s 2025 Supreme Court race, making it the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history, according to Axios.

The results of this election will affect several hot-button issues in the state, with potentially national repercussions. The court is expected to weigh a question about whether abortion is protected by the Wisconsin state Constitution, which could potentially upend a preceding decision about a 1849 law banning abortion with no exceptions for rape and incest. While Crawford made supporting abortion access a cornerstone of her campaign, Schimel has supported leaving the ban in place and asserted that there is no constitutional right to abortion.

Musk has expressed particular interest in the court’s July decision to legalize the use of absentee ballot drop boxes in elections. “Very important to vote Republican for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to prevent voting fraud!” Musk wrote on X in January. though there is no proven connection between the use of drop boxes and widespread voter fraud. The court’s decisions on election rules could have a significant impact on the midterm elections in 2026, and the 2028 presidential election.

The candidates also emphasized their role in approving proposed congressional maps. This is a crucial issue in Wisconsin, where Republicans have amassed six out of the state’s eight U.S. House seats, despite holding thin margins in state-wide races.

A liberal majority on the court could not only keep additional seats out of the hands of Republicans but also ensure that any legislative redistricting pitched by Democrats is readily approved.