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Nobody is excited about the possibility of a second term for President Joe Biden. Well, almost nobody.
According to the latest Harvard University poll, while three-quarters of Donald Trump voters enthusiastically support him, less than half of Biden voters say the same.
Democrats are facing an enthusiasm gap, and between inflation, the border crisis, and the war in Gaza, it is highly unlikely people are going to suddenly start clamoring for a Biden second term.
Hence the all-out effort by Democrats and their media allies to scare voters into going to the polls to stop Trump. Time magazine’s latest cover story, “If he wins,” is just the latest in the genre.
Trump, Time warns, plans on installing “an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world.” He “would be willing to build migrant detention camps and deploy the U.S. military, both at the border and inland,” Time continues. And he “would be willing to fire a U.S. Attorney who doesn’t carry out his order to prosecute someone.”
The “would be willing” phrasing here is key, because when you read the actual interview, it turns out all these ideas came from Time not Trump.
Here is the actual exchange on immigration, for example:
Time: What’s your plan, sir?
Trump: We will be using local law enforcement. And we will absolutely start with the criminals that are coming in. And they’re coming in in numbers that we’ve never seen before. And we do have a new category of crime. It’s called migrant crime. It’s, ugh, you see it all the time. You see it in New York City where they’re having fistfights with police. And far worse than that. You see it all the time. And you’re seeing it in all of the cities, especially the Democratic-run cities, which is a lot of the big ones, but you’re seeing it in Chicago, you’re seeing it in New York and LA and getting worse than in other places.
Time: Does that include using the U.S. military?
Trump: It would. When we talk military, generally speaking, I talk National Guard. I’ve used the National Guard in Minneapolis. And if I didn’t use it, I don’t think you’d have Minneapolis standing right now because it was really bad. But I think in terms of the National Guard. But if I thought things were getting out of control, I would have no problem using the military, per se. We have to have safety in our country. We have to have law and order in our country. And whichever gets us there, but I think the National Guard will do the job. You know, had Nancy Pelosi used the National Guard. You know, I offered them whatever they wanted, but I often—
Time: You would use the military inland as well as at the border?
Trump: I don’t think I’d have to do that. I think the National Guard would be able to do that. If they weren’t able to, then I’d use the military. You know, we have a different situation. We have millions of people now that we didn’t have two years ago.
Time: So you can see yourself using the military to address this?
Trump: I can see myself using the National Guard and, if necessary, I’d have to go a step further. We have to do whatever we have to do to stop the problem we have. Again, we have a major force that’s forming in our country, when you see that over the last three weeks, 29,000 people came in from China, and they’re all fighting age, and they’re mostly males. Yeah, you have to do what you have to do to stop crime and to stop what’s taking place at the border.
Time: Would that include building new migrant detention camps?
Trump: We wouldn’t have to do very much of that. Because we’ll be bringing them out of the country. We’re not leaving them in the country. We’re bringing them out. It’s been done before.
Time: Will you build new ones?
Trump: And it was done by Obama in a form of jails, you know, prisons. And I got blamed for that for four months. And then people realized that was done by him, not by me.
Time: So are you ruling out that you would build new migrant detention camps?
Trump: No, I would not rule out anything. But there wouldn’t be that much of a need for them, because of the fact that we’re going to be moving them out. We’re going to bring them back from where they came.
Notice that when Trump describes his own plan, it is just deporting illegal immigrants as they are arrested for other crimes by local police. It is Time magazine that suggests using the military and building detention camps. All Trump does is not rule it out.
Time later turns to the possibility Trump won’t leave office.
Time: Both the Heritage Foundation’s Project 25 and the American Conservative magazine, they’re a big supporter of yours, have proposed abolishing the 22nd Amendment that limits presidents to two terms. They say that, you know, if you come back into office, you will have served two nonconsecutive terms, and that if the popular will is there for you, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to.
Trump: I didn’t know they did that.
One really good reason that Tump didn’t know the Heritage Foundation has proposed repealing the 22nd Amendment is because it never happened. As the Heritage Foundation’s President Kevin Roberts noted in a post on X, “Our mandate does no such thing. Please read our material next time before making assumptions. This is why the legacy media is dying: no one trusts you.”
But Trump didn’t know that at the time. So the interview proceeded like this:
Time: Well, would you definitely retire after a second term, or would you consider challenging the 22nd Amendment?
Trump: Well, I would, and I don’t really have a choice, but I would.
Time: You would consider it?
Trump: I’m at a point where I would, I think, you know, I would do that. Look, it’s two terms. I had two elections. I did much better on the second one than I did the first. I got millions more votes. I was treated very unfairly. They used COVID to cheat and lots of other things to cheat. But I was treated very unfairly. But no, I’m going to serve one term, I’m gonna do a great job. We’re gonna have a very successful country again.
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So there you have it. Trump has no interest in getting rid of the 22nd Amendment and becoming a dictator.
But that won’t stop Democrats, or their media allies, from claiming otherwise.
This article was originally published by Washington Examiner - Opinion. We only curate news from sources that align with the core values of our intended conservative audience. If you like the news you read here we encourage you to utilize the original sources for even more great news and opinions you can trust!
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