Shortly before 9 pm last night, the press were lined up on the tarmac of Joint Base Andrews as Donald Trump exited Air Force One and walked directly towards them. His right arm hung limp at his side while the sweat on his face glistened with the bright lights pointed at him. As soon as he was within earshot of the reporters, he didn’t wait for their questions. Instead, he immediately launched into a long-winded proclamation that our country was not just surviving, but thriving.
“So, the Patriot Games were tremendous, a tremendous success, great young athlete, the future of our country, and we had a great time in Ohio, a fantastic time in Ohio. The country is doing well. The stock market’s fantastic record. We have 79 records so far in a short period of time. More people are working right now in the United States than ever before. And prices are dropping fast. Iran is going fine. Going just absolutely fine. We totally control the Strait of Hormose (sic). We have control over it. Nobody else, only us. Our Navy is unbelievable and things are going great for our country.”
As soon as he was finished with that planned statement, the questions came quickly. “Mr. President, you mentioned 2028 several times in the last few weeks. At the dinner, you put on a Trump 2028 hat. Are you serious about seeking a third term?”
He only spoke to the press for 4 minutes and 56 seconds, but this moment in particular got Trump very excited. He smirked and laughed as he said, “Everybody asked me that question, and you know that the law is very strong on that. I’d love to run, but the law is very strong. I get asked by every, well, even tonight they’re screaming at the event, 2028. No, everybody wants me to do it, but the law is very strong. Thank you very much.”
He might have said “the law is very strong” three times as if it was completely off the table, yet he posts memes teasing another term regularly. The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution was written after Franklin Roosevelt won four terms and the country decided, deliberately and permanently, that no one person should hold that much power for that long. They knew this moment would eventually come, and they knew the threat it would bring. Trump has already thrown around possible loopholes, such as claiming that the amendment does not say “consecutive terms.” But even he seems to understand that is not going to work, because the language does say that no person who has been elected president twice shall be elected again. Constitutional scholars have been clear, there are no third terms.
Before we set this aside as a joke, we need to see it for what it really is, he is attempting to condition us into wanting this more than even he does. This is how authoritarian leaders normalize what should be unthinkable. You say it once, and people laugh. You say it again, and they debate it. You say it 15 times, and suddenly people see it as a real possibility and a God-given right being taken away from Trump if he does not get to run again. You do not need to change the law if you can change what people are willing to accept. And that is exactly what Trump is doing. He is testing how far he can push this, because he is hoping that someone, somewhere, will find a way to let him do it. Or that if he says it enough, the resistance to the idea will soften, so that by the time 2028 arrives, the Constitution becomes just another easy obstacle to override.
Anoo D. Vyas, an assistant professor of law at the University of Massachusetts School of Law, noted that “If the joke is really a secret way to test the waters on how much a legally dubious theory can fly, then yes, there’s absolutely danger there.” And Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, warned that the real crisis would come if Republicans actually nominated him, because the Constitution prohibits serving in office but does not explicitly prohibit running for it. “If Republicans nominated him,” Burden said, “they would be betting that they can violate the Constitution and somehow allow him to serve if he wins.”
There was one other moment that Trump tried to use manipulation tactics. When a reporter asked about his secret plane swapping in Turkey last month on the catering truck while the press and members of his own staff were left on the decoy plane during the Iranian assassination threat, Trump did not express concern for the people he left behind. He had every opportunity to express regret or concern for the danger they were in. Instead, he tried to make himself sound brave and the one who faced the risk head on instead of the person who was hidden in a food cart and who took the safer risk, leaving others in the dark about the threat that they now faced alone.
When a reporter pressed him directly, asking why it was too dangerous for the president to fly on Air Force One but not too dangerous for the press, Trump was cornered and created an alternative reality, saying, “The plane that I flew on was at greater risk. I think they would be more likely to go for it.”
Without missing a beat, he pivoted to framing himself as fearless. “Not surprised. I have a lot of threats. I have a lot of threats that you don’t know about. When asked if he worries about a shoulder-fired missile, he said, “I don’t worry about anything to be honest. Whatever it is, you know my attitude. Whatever.”
Trump struggled to communicate anything that resembled the truth last night, and he is about to have even greater communication struggles in just a couple of weeks. Because at 3:34 pm this afternoon, Trump posted on Truth Social that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt would be “departing her role at the end of the month so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family, a decision I totally understand and respect!” He called her “one of the best White House Press Secretaries in the History of the Office” and said she would become “one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party, as we work to defy History, and conclusively win the Midterm Elections.”
Eight minutes later, Karoline posted her own statement on X. It read more like a campaign launch than a resignation letter. She thanked Donald Trump for “granting me” the privilege of working in the West Wing. She said she had “relished holding the liberal media accountable.” And then she shifted into full right-wing opportunist mode, writing, “Our country is facing an existential threat from an increasingly extremist Democrat Party that seeks to destroy everything great about America, and I believe it is incumbent upon all of us who care about this country to fight back against that threat. My fight is entering a new phase, but it is far from over.”
The questions surrounding her departure are mounting. She appears to be walking away from the White House podium voluntarily, less than a month after returning from maternity leave. Trump never named a replacement for her while she was gone, and briefings became rare during and after her return. The question at this time really is whether she was pushed out or really chose to leave on her own. On social media, people are wondering if Trump was frustrated with her. Or did she look around and decide that this was the right moment to get off a ship that is starting to take on water?
One thing that is worth mentioning was a line she included in her resignation post on X, with the Department of Justice recently issuing a memo stating that the president could claim executive privilege over communications with private outside advisers. Leavitt’s stated that she would be transitioning to a “top outside adviser.” It sounds like she might be aligning any future conversations with Trump as shielded from congressional oversight in ways they never would have been while she was a government employee. Whether that was the plan all along or just a convenient result, we will have to watch and see.
The last month or so, the mood around Trump and the accelerating destruction he is unleashing on our country seemed to have caused a deepening sense that the future was already written and resistance was futile. But the energy seems to be shifting. We are getting through the primaries state by state, and the midterms are right around the corner. When we look back over the last two years, right before Trump was re-elected, we have been through a lot. Our country and the world have been through a lot. But we have survived. Not without tremendous loss and suffering that is still ongoing, but they have not been able to silence us. The courts have held when it mattered, and people have been finding their individual footings and voices. The resistance has not been seamless, nor ordinary. We seem to have abandoned protests and rallies, and I will never understand why we are not out in the streets, but that never meant we had given up. We have just evolved. One example is that Taylor Swift has been systematically removing her music from social media to stop Trump and White House from using it with their social media posts. The Team Trump account posted a video of Donald and Melania watching fireworks set to Swift’s song “August,” with the caption, “I’m sure @Taylor Swift is going to be super excited we used her song!” Days later, the audio was gone. TikTok now displays this message on those posts: “The copyright owner hasn’t made this sound available in your country.” Taylor Swift never said a word about any of it. She just removed the music and let the silence do the talking.
This is what resistance looks like in 2026. It does not always look like a courtroom battle or a congressional hearing, though we need all of those too. And it doesn’t have to look like millions of people in the street either. Sometimes it looks like a songwriter quietly pulling her music off a propaganda video posted by the president’s team. We need all the resistance we can muster. And from the looks of it, we are ramping that resistance right back up. That is why I still have hope for America. And you should, too.
I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather
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This commentary represents my personal opinions and analysis of matters of public concern, informed by publicly available information. Any references to individuals constitute opinion and commentary protected under the First Amendment.
Picture of the day: Saw this on a car in the parking lot today. Had to take a picture.
Sources used in the writing of this post:
President Trump Gaggles with Press at Joint Base Andrews, Aug. 11, 2026: YouTube video
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/6024436-donald-trump-third-term-talk-ohio/
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-third-term-jokes_l_6a67a7c8e4b006a1a83748bc
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/6022381-doj-executive-privilege-outside-advisers/
https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/10/politics/taylor-swift-trump-music
Trump is sounding so like Putin and Kim jong un constantly bigging up USA when actually all around him is crumbling. - totally in charge of the strait of Hormuz but he has sailors wanting to jump off ship because they have been stranded.
Everyone please stay strong and defy the odds and take this ridiculous man’s power away.
Thank you Heather for your writing.
Yesterday and today have been a difficult day. Talking with my daughters-in-law. Have a grandson and granddaughter in the military currently serving in this sh*tshow of a war with Iran. This is a total clusterfu€k of incompetence, ignorance and hubris from Trump and Hegseth..
The morale and conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln is absolutely vile. The conditions on this navy ship just do not just begin or stop there. There are other navy ships that our military personnel are dealing with logistical nightmares from food supply and rations. The delivery of any fresh goods from the primary regional hub in Bahrain to ships at sea has become highly difficult to absolutely nothing being received. Therefore our sailors, marines and other military personnel are having smaller rations of food and supplies, all at the same time to work a grinding work day from up to 12 to 16 hours, no days off. …The highly operational tempo across the Middle East ships has caused backlogs in basic upkeep of the ships leading to periodic issues with the navy ship’s laundry, and plumbing. The conditions are also really no better on land either as per one of my daughter-in-law that my granddaughter is located.
Stupidity is dangerous, and incompetence is unforgivable…
Both Trump and Hegseth as well as this entire regime are all dangerous and their actions, behaviors are unforgivable.
Trump treats even his entire cabinet as expendables. They are the ones sitting inside a metal tube flying through the air, him knowing they are a possible target of incoming fire and he snuck out of the backdoor of that metal tube in a catering truck before it even takes off to another airplane for transportation that is safely hidden away. Then as always lies everytime he opens his mouth.
Our family, friends and neighbors even strangers serving in the military are not expendable because he is an arrogant POS… Have no sympathy for those in his cabinet that were used as if lined up as ducks in a shooting gallery, they are just as culpable. Have absolutely nothing remotely even nice to say or think about a woman who stood behind a podium and continued his lies and delivered them to the White House press all the while wearing a cross dangling from a chain around her neck leaving to spend time with her family.
It’s now 5:00 am and haven’t slept a wink and will probably go outside and walk with the dog just to clear the mind and have a cup of coffee, may even add a five finger pour of liquor in that touch of brew. May also scream out-loud. There are benefits to living in a rural area versus the suburbs or the city.
Good for Taylor swift pulling her sound from all her music. It’s all about resistance. Facing the fear, uncertainty with the deepest voices inside all of us telling us to take each step forward. Just keep moving, just keep swimming, just keep resisting this foulness of individuals who have no souls, no conscience.. There are 82 days til midterms… this horror show may not end then, but it’s a beginning to turn the page from this darkness. Make your voice be heard, Vote for the changes that are needed to begin… Keep the hope..