Trump’s eyes lit up at the idea of cancelling the 2028 election in order to cling on to power – after Volodymyr Zelensky explained why he postponed Ukraine’s last election
Donald Trump indicated he’s attracted to the idea of using a war to cancel the next election, allowing him to stay in power.
He made the comments in the Oval Office alongside Volodymyr Zelensky, who cancelled an election in Ukraine because his country is at war with Russia.
Trump has repeatedly made remarks about serving for a third term, which would be unlawful under the US Constitution.
And he was impeached over his bid to cling on to the White House after losing the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden by millions of votes.
He made, and continues to make false and unfounded claims that the election was “rigged” or “corrupt.”
These statements, combined with a string of authoritarian policies, have led many to feel uneasy about whether he plans to leave the Oval Office voluntarily once his term is up.
Today, as Zelensky answered a question about the difficulty of holding an election during Ukraine’s war with Russia, Trump openly mused about how a similar circumstance could allow him to stay in power in the US past the expiration of his current term.
“So let me just say three and a half years from now — so you mean, if we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections, oh, I wonder what the fake news would say,” Trump said.
Zelenskyy noted the difficulties of being able to hold elections during wartime, saying that a “truce” would be needed to do so safely.
Trump later went on a lengthy and meandering rant, claiming – without evidence – that postal votes are not widely used internationally, and are vulnerable to corruption.
In reality, the UK, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, Canada, India and many other nations use postal voting regularly without issue.
But Trump has long made the claim that mail-in ballots are corrupt – and it was a key complaint in his false claim that the 2020 election had been stolen.
He claimed in a TV interview on Friday evening that Vladimir Putin had told him he agreed with him on postal voting.
Russian elections are widely understood to be increasingly fraudulent and corrupt under Putin.
“Mail in ballots are corrupt,” Trump said.
“You can never have a real democracy with mail in ballots.
“We as a Republican Party are gonna do everything possible we can to get rid of mail in ballots.
“We’re gonna start with an executive order to end mail in ballots … we’re gonna end mail in voting”