The “Novel” and “Complex” Idea of Trump 2028

A federal judge is just asking questions.

Programming notes: Sarah and I talked about Danielle Sassoon’s letter on the Secret pod and I don’t have anything more to add on the subject right now but it does seem pretty important. (Also, if you read to #3, we have another blistering resignation letter from inside DoJ.) The show will be out in a bit It’s a pretty good episode.

And here’s my conversation with

Benjamin Wittes

from yesterday’s WTF 2.0. We discussed the courts and Trump, Ukraine, and whether or not the American voters are getting what they wanted.

Anyway, today I want to talk about one of my bugaboos: Trump 2028.

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(Nathan Morris/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

1. Always Right

I have been saying for a very long time that Donald Trump is likely to test the Twenty-second Amendment. In general, people tell me I’m crazy. He couldn’t/wouldn’t do it. And if he did, the courts would slap him down. It’s an open-and-shut case! There’s not even a debate!

Well, maybe it’s not so “open and shut”?

This week we got a ruling in the 10th Circuit on an obscure case, Castro v. Oliver.

I’m going to walk you through the facts of the case, and then the verdict, because I want you to have context. But if you want to just skip to the conclusion, it’s this: A federal judge called the possibility of Trump running for president in 2028 a “novel and complex constitutional question.”

I’m not a lawyer but those words do not sound like “open-and-shut case” to me.

It sure seems like a federal judge is curious to hear a potential Trump challenge on eligibility for a third term . . .