White House Says US Would Be ‘Lucky’ if Trump Stays in Office ‘Longer’

(AP Photo/Butch Dill)

A White House spokesperson said that the U.S. would be “lucky” if President Donald Trump remained in office beyond his current term.

The comments came after the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Alan Dershowitz, Trump’s former impeachment lawyer, had shared a draft of a forthcoming book with the president examining whether a third term could be legally possible.

“There has never been an Administration that has accomplished as much in less than one year than the Trump Administration,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in an email on Thursday to Axios. “The American people would be lucky to have President Trump in office for even longer.”

The White House did not reply to Axios’s further query as to whether Trump is actively planning another bid, but the remark adds fresh fuel to a pattern of teasing that has become a hallmark of his second term.

Trump and his allies have repeatedly floated the idea of him running again in 2028, sometimes playfully, sometimes pointedly, often leaving critics unsure how seriously to take the provocation. The line has been blurred even further by the president’s promotion of “Trump 2028” MAGA hats to troll Democrats.

Chief of Staff Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair this week that Trump is “having fun” knowing his comments are “driving people crazy,” even as she dismissed the idea he would openly defy the Constitution.

Dershowitz told the Journal that he had advised Trump that “it’s not clear if a president can become a third term president and it’s not clear if it’s permissible,” while stressing: “I don’t think he will run for a third term.”

His book, Could President Trump Constitutionally Serve a Third Term?, is due out next year.