The president’s comments deflect attention from other controversies. And they freeze the field of potential successors who might steal the spotlight from a lame duck.
President Trump cannot run for a third term as president, barring changes to the Constitution. But that has not stopped him from openly flirting with the idea.
He has floated it publicly and privately, and on Sunday, he said he was “not joking” about it. In an interview with NBC News, he insisted there were “methods” to circumvent the two-term limit set out by the 22nd Amendment.
Mr. Trump has not specified those methods, and there are no apparent signs that he is actually laying groundwork for a third term. But his musings — whether based in reality or not — serve a distinct political purpose.
They redirect attention from other controversies, such as the leaked Signal message chain in which his top advisers inadvertently included a journalist in a group-chat discussion of an upcoming military operation. And they freeze the field of potential successors who may steal the spotlight from a lame duck — a status dreaded by American presidents, who see their relevance diminish steadily over time.
“It reads like somebody who doesn’t want to be treated like a lame duck and is throwing it out there right now,” said Derek T. Muller, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame and a scholar in election law. “It’s really hard to be a lame duck president or to be treated that way, and people are talking to you like your term’s already over.”
In January, Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee, a Republican, proposed a long shot amendment to the Constitution to make Mr. Trump eligible for a third term.
