Letters to the Editor: The idea of Trump circumventing the Constitution to seek a third term should make us ‘shiver’

To the editor: Although I was not quite old enough to vote in 1951 when the 22nd Amendment to the U. S. Constitution became the law of the land, I thought it was not a very good idea (“A Trump bid for a third term? ‘It could get messy’,” April 1). Why shouldn’t someone run for a third presidential term if that was what the people wanted? At that time I had lived almost all of my life with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and never thought there was a problem as he began his fourth term in the White House.

Today, the thought of a third term for the presidency simply makes me shiver. We are living with the most autocratic president anyone could have imagined.

There is no compelling reason to change the 22nd Amendment. I think there is little chance of it happening, but the mere thought of it today is a knife to the heart of American democracy.

Charles M. Weisenberg, Sherman Oaks

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To the editor: President Obama can seek a third term if Trump can.

Michael Galbraith, Lynwood

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To the editor: Forget traditional niceties like laws and the Constitution. Face reality. President Trump is a master of brainwashing. In his first term, he repeated that the only way he’d lose the 2020 election was if it was rigged. President Biden won but millions of Americans never accepted him as the legitimate president. Jan. 6’s attempted coup was the result.

Now, less than three months into his constitutionally limited second term, Trump is starting his campaign for a third term. Does he intend to win as a write-in candidate? Will he declare some type of national emergency and cancel the 2028 election? Trump has made his intentions quite clear.

The only question is: What will Congress, the courts and American voters do in response?

Betty Rome, Culver City

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To the editor: As we now know, Trump tried various maneuvers to stay in office, including inciting an insurrection in the Capitol, and has yet to concede the 2020 election, despite no evidence to support his claim of election fraud. This is why we have to take very seriously his recent hints about staying in office for a third term, in direct violation of the 22nd Amendment.

With a super-conservative majority at the Supreme Court and with Trump loyalists now heading the Justice and Defense departments, as well as the FBI, the institutional guardrails put in place by the Founding Fathers to restrain a rogue executive branch have been significantly weakened.

Gary Vogt, Menifee

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To the editor: What’s so surprising about Trump voicing his plans for a third term? It’s what every dictator in the history of the world does. Just ask Russia’s Vladimir Putin. We all know this, right? Just another day.

Maureen Di Domenico, Costa Mesa

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To the editor: Trump would never think of circumventing the Constitution of the United States (again) in order to seek a third term. That would look like he’s trying to manipulate the next election or pay people a million dollars to vote in an election in Wisconsin. Not true. Fake news!

Joe Garcia, Yorba Linda