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      Agriculture secretary accused of unlawfully refusing to use emergency fund to prevent food stamp disruption – US politics live

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      Today brought more concern over food assistance for millions of Americans, as states filed an emergency lawsuit to prevent SNAP benefit cuts during the ongoing government shutdown.Donald Trump continued his Asia trip with stops in Japan and South Korea, while war secretary Pete Hegseth announced the killing of 14 people in strikes against alleged drug-trafficking vessels.Here’s what else happened today:

      More than two dozen states and Washington DC filed an emergency lawsuit against the Trump administration seeking to prevent food stamp benefits from being cut off for roughly 42 million Americans starting 1 November. State officials asked a federal judge to force the agriculture department to tap emergency reserve funds.

      The Pentagon announced US forces killed 14 people onboard alleged drug-trafficking vessels in three separate military operations on 27 October. Defense secretary Pete Hegseth vowed suspected narcotics smugglers will face the same treatment as terrorist organizations, saying: “We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them.”

      Donald Trump appealed his criminal conviction in his hush money case, with lawyers arguing the trial was “fatally marred” by evidence that should have been protected under the supreme court’s presidential immunity ruling.

      The Trump administration plans to revamp ICE leadership as it seeks to intensify mass deportation efforts, potentially replacing multiple field office directors with border patrol officials after falling well short of arrest targets.

      House Republicans’ oversight chair James Comer asked the justice department to investigate whether Joe Biden’s aides improperly used an autopen to sign executive actions, claiming Biden’s inner circle concealed his cognitive decline while exercising presidential authority without authorization.

      Trump is expected to offer China tariff cuts in exchange for a fentanyl crackdown when he meets with Xi Jinping on Thursday, according to the Wall Street Journal. The US could halve the 20% levies on Chinese goods in return for Beijing restricting exports of chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl.

      Trump confirmed he would meet with Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang on Wednesday during his Asia trip, ahead of Huang’s attendance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit in South Korea.

      Three US servicemembers connected to Wright-Patterson air force base in Ohio were found dead in a double-murder suicide over the weekend in what officials called a “tragic event” under investigation by state and military authorities.
      This blog has been paused for now, but may resume later today pending new developments.A federal judge in San Francisco has barred the Trump administration from continuing to terminate government employees during the shutdown, extending legal protections beyond a temporary order that was scheduled to expire this week.Judge Susan Illston’s preliminary injunction will remain in place throughout the legal challenge, indicating her belief the mass terminations across education, health and other departments will ultimately be proven unlawful.Three US servicemembers connected to Wright-Patterson air force base in Ohio were found dead in a double-murder suicide over the weekend that impacted multiple locations around Dayton, according to a statement from the Air Force materiel command’s deputy commander.Lieutenant general Linda Hurry said authorities are “committed to fully investigating this incident” but declined to share specific details as the Ohio bureau of criminal investigation, assisted by the Air Force office of special investigations, continues its probe into deaths occurring over a 12-hour period overnight between the 24 and 25 October.A government accountability organization has accused agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins of unlawfully refusing to tap a $5bn emergency fund that Congress specifically created to prevent food stamp disruptions during government shutdowns.The Democracy Defenders Fund sent a letter to Rollins arguing that the USDA is legally obliged to use the SNAP contingency fund to continue benefits for 42 million Americans, warning that the secretary’s failure to draw on available money represents “a deliberate decision to deny food” to vulnerable populations including the elderly, children and veterans.The halting of SNAP benefits will devastate merchants across the country who accept food stamps, including about 26,600 grocers and farmers’ markets in California alone, 17,000 in New York, and 10,600 in Pennsylvania, according to the states’ legal filing.And with Thanksgiving a few weeks away, the filing argues that many retailers have already purchased increased inventory to meet expected demand, but without SNAP funds flowing to recipients, businesses face significant revenue losses and food waste just as families would ordinarily be preparing for the holiday.The sudden loss of food assistance for 42 million Americans is expected to trigger a cascade of healthcare costs as food insecurity drives increased emergency room visits and hospitalizations, according to the lawsuit.One example state officials point to is Connecticut, which anticipates that the abrupt termination of SNAP benefits will create downstream effects on safety net programs like Medicaid, which partially depend on state funding to cover healthcare costs for vulnerable populations.About one in eight people in the United States are on food stamps, which average around $187 a month and cost the federal government about $8bn monthly, making the potential November cutoff a crisis affecting tens of millions of households.The Trump administration declined to extend a reprieve for Snap benefits, despite the agriculture department acknowledging weeks ago that it could reprogram emergency reserve money to prevent benefit cuts – a move supported by both congressional democrats and republicans.More than two dozen states and Washington DC have filed an emergency lawsuit against the Trump administration seeking to prevent food stamp benefits from being cut off for roughly 42 million Americans during the ongoing government shutdown.State officials from Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Colorado, Michigan and other states asked a federal judge to force Washington to tap emergency reserve funds so that families receiving assistance under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would not see their benefits interrupted starting 1 November.Donald Trump and Xi Jinping will likely discuss a trade framework that would see the US slash tariffs on Chinese goods in return for Beijing’s commitment to restrict exports of chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl, according to reporting in the Wall Street Journal.The report said the US could halve the 20% levies imposed on Chinese products as retaliation for fentanyl precursor exports, with details to be negotiated following Thursday’s meeting between the two leaders during Trump’s Asia trip.Every morning, Alicia Mercado makes the 50-minute drive from her home in Columbus to Springfield, where she runs the Adasa Latin Market store. She opened the business next to a Haitian restaurant in 2023, having spotted a gap in the market for Caribbean and Latin foods – the neighborhood’s Haitian population was booming at the time.But over the past year, she says her business, which includes an international money transfer kiosk, has taken a major hit.“About 80 to 90% of our customers were Haitians; now that’s down to about 60% over the past six months,” she says. “No more people are moving to Springfield.”Mercado’s experiences are being echoed around the city of 58,000 people that garnered international attention last year when Donald Trump falsely claimed during a presidential debate that immigrants were eating people’s pets.Until the end of last year, Springfield was something of a surprise economic juggernaut. A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland found that it ranked second among all Ohio cities for job growth since the pandemic. New housing projects, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, are among the biggest investments the city has ever made.That growth was partly fueled by the availability of manufacturing and blue-collar jobs that were eagerly filled by the more than 15,000 Haitian immigrants who had moved to the city over the past eight years, fueling businesses such as Mercado’s.Local companies got cheap, reliable labor, while Haitian workers received stable income, health insurance and a safe place to live. Many bought homes and invested their hard-earned income into improving the city’s housing stock that, in turn, padded the city’s tax coffers. For the most part, it was a win for all involved.But since then, the city’s economic fortunes have spiraled.For the full story, click here:Donald Trump has appealed his criminal conviction in his hush money case, with his lawyers arguing that the trial was “fatally marred” by evidence that should have been protected under the supreme court’s 2024 ruling on presidential immunity.In a court filing on Monday night, his lawyers accused Manhattan’s district attorney Alvin Bragg of being politically motivated to prosecute Trump.“Targeting alleged conduct that has never been found to violate any New York law, the DA concocted a purported felony by stacking time-barred misdemeanors under a convoluted legal theory, which the DA then improperly obscured until the charge conference. This case should never have seen the inside of a courtroom, let alone resulted in a conviction,” his lawyers said.The appeal comes 17 months after Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to payments he made to his former lawyer, Michael Cohen. Those payments reimbursed Cohen for a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, intended to keep her from speaking publicly about an alleged sexual affair with Trump.The Trump administration is planning to revamp the leadership of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to reports, as the government seeks to intensify its mass deportation efforts.Multiple news outlets have reported that the government intends to reassign multiple directors of ICE field offices in the coming days, potentially replacing them with border patrol officials.It comes as the government is falling well short of its targets on immigration. Earlier this year, Stephen Miller – Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff – set ICE a target of arresting 3,000 people every day. But as of late September, the agency on average was arresting 1,178 daily, NBC reported.The New York Times reported that the proposed changes stem from the White House becoming frustrated at the pace of deportations, which now lags behind Trump’s goal of removing 1 million immigrants in his first year in office.For the full story, click here:Donald Trump will reportedly meet the presidents of five Central Asian nations next week in what marks a rare high-level gathering focused on the resource-rich former Soviet republics, a source familiar with the plans tells Reuters.Should the 6 November meeting happen, it will bring together the leaders of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.The justification for the strikes has been widely disputed by legal experts. For one, when the US killed al-Qaida members, Congress had authorized the use of force. In targeting drug cartel members, the administration has relied on Trump’s article II powers to defend the US against an imminent threat.The latest boat strikes come as the US appears destined to start hitting land-based targets in the coming weeks, after the Pentagon sent its most advanced aircraft carrier and its strike group to the Caribbean – a major escalation in the Trump administration’s stated war against drug cartels.The move is expected bring the USS Gerald Ford, with its dozens of fighter jets, and its accompanying destroyers, to the coast of Venezuela by roughly the end of the week, according to a person familiar with the matter.Sending the carrier strike group to the Caribbean is the clearest sign to date that the administration intends to dramatically expand the scope of its lethal military campaign from hitting small boats alleged to be carrying drugs bound for the US to targets on land.Read more from my colleague Hugo Lowell here.A far-right Republican legislator has urged federal authorities to investigate whether Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayoral candidate, committed naturalization fraud by allegedly failing to disclose his Democratic Socialists of America affiliation and political views when becoming a US citizen.The latest freak-out over Mamdani’s possible ascension to mayoralty comes from Andy Ogles, the Tennessee congressperson who claims in a letter to attorney general Pam Bondi that Mamdani “praised terrorists” and held views that “openly despised the US constitution” in 2017, and argues such positions should have been revealed during the citizenship process.“If we deport Mamdani for breaking REAL laws, we can save NYC and take back our country from the Marxists who want to reduce America to a third-world wasteland,” he wrote on X.Mike Johnson, while talking to reporters, said the pardons made by Joe Biden are “invalid on their face”.“I used to be a constitutional lawyer,” the House speaker added. “I would love to take this case, go into the court and make that law to set the precedent”.The Monday strikes hit four boats in three waves in the eastern Pacific ocean, Hegseth said. There were 14 confirmed killed, and one survivor, who was taken by Mexican search and rescue teams.Prior to the missiles on Monday, US forces have carried out at least eight strikes against boats off the Caribbean over the last few weeks, killing 40 people.Pete Hegseth, the Trump administration’s defence secretary, announced on social media that US forces killed 14 people onboard alleged drug-trafficking vessels in three separate military operations on 27 October, and vowed that suspected narcotics smugglers will face the same treatment as terrorist organizations.“These narco-terrorists have killed more Americans than Al-Qaeda, and they will be treated the same,” Hegseth wrote Tuesday morning, adding: “We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them.”There was one survivor. Hegseth said the strikes came at the direction of the Donald Trump.The GOP-led committee also released a staff report based on a 14-witness deposition alleging Biden’s advisors orchestrated a cover-up involving scripted appearances and restricted media access.It claims that senior strategist Mike Donilon and other key advisors “stood to gain financially and politically” from maintaining Biden’s candidacy while suppressing evidence of his decline.Three aides, including Biden’s physician Kevin O’Connor, invoked fifth amendment protections during the probe. More

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      Two dozen states sue White House over food stamps suspension amid shutdown

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      A coalition of more than two dozen states on Tuesday sued the Trump administration over its decision to suspend food stamps during the government shutdown.The lawsuit, co-led by New York, California and Massachusetts, asks a federal judge to force the US Department of Agriculture to tap into emergency reserve funds to distribute food benefits to the nearly 42 million families and children who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap). The USDA has said no benefits will be issued on 1 November.“Snap is one of our nation’s most effective tools to fight hunger, and the USDA has the money to keep it running,” the New York attorney general, Letitia James, said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “There is no excuse for this administration to abandon families who rely on Snap, or food stamps, as a lifeline. The federal government must do its job to protect families.”The Democratic attorneys general and three governors argue in their lawsuit that the federal government is obliged by law to maintain food benefits to the low-income households who rely on the program. They ask for a ruling by Friday on their motion.Snap is the nation’s largest nutrition assistance program, according to the USDA, serving roughly one in eight low-income Americans at a cost of approximately $8bn per month. The USDA’s contingency fund is estimated to contain approximately $6bn.The expiration of Snap benefits has emerged as a major pressure point in the shutdown standoff between Democrats and Republicans. Across the country, food banks and pantries, already struggling under the sharp cuts to federal programs, were bracing for a surge of hungry people if federal food aid is paused, as state officials scrambled to keep assistance flowing to recipients.Many congressional Democrats and Republicans had called on the Trump administration to use the reserve funding to prevent widespread hunger and financial hardship on millions of American families, but it has so far declined.“Snap benefits are about to end on Saturday,” the agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, said on Fox News. “We don’t have the funding to cover them.”The USDA’s food and nutrition homepage has a banner with a strikingly partisan message falsely accusing Senate Democrats of shutting down the government to provide healthcare to undocumented immigrants and trans Americans. “Bottom line, the well has run dry,” the notice says. “At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01.”“Despite having the money to fund Snap, the Trump administration is creating needless fear, angst, and harm for millions of families and their children especially as we approach the holidays,” the Massachusetts attorney general, Andrea Joy Campbell, said in a statement. “It is past time for the Trump administration to act to help, rather than harm, those who rely on our government.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe plaintiffs cite a memo from the agriculture department stating that contingency funds were “not legally available to cover regular benefits” during the government shutdown, which the document blamed on Democrats. The agency said it was only able to tap into the reserve funds under certain circumstances, such as natural disasters.The memo appears to contradict the department’s lapsed funding plan, released in late September, which stated that Congress’s “evident” intent was for Snap operations to continue during a government shutdown and pointed to “multi-year contingency funds” that could be tapped in the event the closures dragged on. The plan has been removed from the department’s website.“USDA not only has authority to use contingency funds, it has a legal duty to spend all available dollars to fund Snap benefits,” said California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, adding: “We are taking a stand because families will experience hunger and malnutrition if the Trump administration gets its way.” More

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      Trump’s third term? Don’t laugh. He’s never let the rules stop him before | Arwa Mahdawi

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      Let me tell you a secret about the US constitution: it’s just a piece of paper. It’s not immutable law created by a higher being. It was made by men, it’s been amended by men, and it can be destroyed by men. It’s only as strong as the institutions that uphold it – institutions which Donald Trump has been systematically weakening as he expands his executive power.I say this because there are still lots of people who have faith that the constitution can stop the US from gradually turning into an electoral autocracy like Hungary. There are still people so drunk on American exceptionalism that they think it’s ludicrous to believe Trump might seek a third term, because such a move is explicitly outlawed by the 22nd amendment of the constitution.But the president and his cronies don’t think the idea is ludicrous. Trump has refused to rule out the idea of a third term on multiple occasions – most recently on Monday when he told reporters he “would love to do it”. And last week Trump’s former White House chief strategist, Steve Bannon, told the Economist that “there’s a plan” to get Trump a third term.Don’t dismiss this as trolling or an attempt to shake off the “lame duck” label second-term presidents are landed with. The golden rule of Trumpism is this: no matter how illegal or unusual something may be, if Trump can figure out a way to do it, then he will. And while I think it’s extremely unlikely, there is a path to Trump 3.0. Here’s a very simplified version of how it might pan out.Step one, obviously, is to figure out a plausible legal basis for a third term. Repealing the 22nd amendment, ratified in 1951 in response to Franklin D Roosevelt bucking tradition and serving a third term, requires approval from two-thirds of the House and Senate. Not easy. Another possibility is a constitutional convention; two-thirds of state legislatures (34 states) would need to call for a convention and any amendment would need ratification by three-quarters of state legislatures. This would also be incredibly difficult but it’s worth noting that the Heritage Foundation, which is responsible for Project 2025, are keen on holding a constitutional convention. And where there’s a will, and a lot of cash from ultra-wealthy donors, there is often a way.Another possibility is that Trump could declare a state of emergency and postpone the 2028 election. Trump loves a good fake emergency: he’s already used at least 10 emergency declarations to justify everything from his tariffs to dispatching the National Guard to Los Angeles. Again: while this seems far-fetched, we live in extraordinary times; it shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand.Once you’ve conjured up a legal basis (no matter how flimsy) for a third term or extended second term, you’ve got to manipulate public opinion to make it seem above board as opposed to autocratic shenanigans. Trump has already proved himself adept at chipping away at press freedom and turning elements of the US media from watchdogs to lapdogs.Social media, as we all know, is also easily manipulated; some studies suggest one-third of the internet is now bots. Reports show that Russia and Israel have poured huge amounts of money into bot-based programs to push propaganda to US audiences. And they’re spending that money because it works: fake accounts can cause very real shifts in views. Remember the hoo-ha over the recent Cracker Barrel rebrand? Researchers think it was largely driven by bots. Now that Elon Musk owns X and TikTok is on its way to being owned by a consortium of Trump’s pals (with Barron Trump potentially sitting on the board), much of social media has been Maga-fied. It’s gone from being a place to find alternative views to a consent-manufacturing machine.Finally, you’ve got to neutralise your opposition. Unlike the previous two steps, this is easy, since there’s no opposition. The Democrats are still floundering and trying to figure out what they stand for. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris, who appears to surround herself exclusively with sycophants, is threatening to run again in 2028. Doing so would be a gift to Trump. Gavin Newsom, a likely 2028 contender, is a more serious threat to Maga but there’s still plenty of time to do what Democrats do best and self-sabotage.Look, I hope my fears are unfounded. I hope the Democrats seize the moment. I hope Trumpism is a temporary nightmare. But while we should hope for the best, we should be prepared for the worst. I don’t want to have to say “I told you so” from an ICE detention centre. Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist and the author of Strong Female Lead More

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      Jon Stewart on Trump’s taunts of an illegal third term: ‘We know he’s thought about it’

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      Late-night hosts reacted to Donald Trump’s taunts about an illegal third presidential term and his demolition of the East Wing of the White House.Jon StewartFrom his Monday night post on the Daily Show, Jon Stewart assessed the threat of Trump attempting to run for a third term as president, which is illegal under the 22nd amendment to the constitution.Asked by reporters for his thoughts on comments by Steve Bannon that he had a plan for such a campaign, Trump answered: “I would love to do it … I have my best numbers ever.”He also claimed, however: “I haven’t really thought about it.”“That’s the tell for whenever he’s asked about something that he is definitely going to do that is dubious legally, ethically or morally,” Stewart noted. “He says he hasn’t thought about it. But of course we know he’s thought about it because he already has the merch,” he added, pointing to “Trump 2028” hats that Trump has displayed in the Oval Office.“What’s interesting about Trump is he’s actually worked through the various scenarios of running for a third term that he has not thought about,” said Stewart, pointing to Trump’s further comments that “I think the people wouldn’t like that. It’s too cute.”“Too cute? No, that’s why you don’t go to Build-a-Bear as an adult,” Stewart replied. “Running as the vice-president to skirt the 22nd amendment isn’t cute. But he’s the kinda guy who’s like ‘I respect Americans too much to play games. If I’m going to run again, I’m going to rip off the constitution’s head and shit down its neck.’“Indications are very clear he’s gonna do it,” he continued, “because you don’t move into a house, knock down a wing and build a 90,000-sq-ft ballroom for the next guy.“Trump’s not a house-flipper,” he added. “He’s not Ellen. He’s in it for the long haul.”Jimmy KimmelJimmy Kimmel returned from a weeklong family trip to Ireland with renewed perspective on his home country. “In case you’re wondering what people in other countries think about what’s going on here in our country, I’ll tell you: they’re worried about us,” he said. “They’re very worried. They’re worried about us in the same way you worry about a nephew who you maybe haven’t seen for a few years and he shows up at Thanksgiving missing all of his front teeth? That kind of worry.”People in Ireland, Kimmel reported, had a lot of questions for him about Trump, including: “Why is he knocking down part of the White House?”“I don’t know. Nobody knows,” he answered. “I don’t think he even knows.“Back here at home, the unrest continues to rage out of control. Antifa terrorists are destroying government – oh wait, that’s the White House,” Kimmel joked over a photo of the demolished East Wing. “That’s what Trump did on purpose, without permission, to the White House. I told you we should’ve made him put down a security deposit!”Nevertheless, Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, defended the move on NBC News: “I think this was a judgment call by the president. The president is a master builder. I don’t know, I assume that maybe parts of the East Wing, there could’ve been asbestos, there could’ve been mold.“There could’ve been some old Chinese food, could’ve been ghosts! We don’t know,” Kimmel joked. “All we know is that the only solution was to completely smash the whole place down. I wish the master builder would master-build in private like the rest of us do.”Seth MeyersOn Late Night, Seth Meyers also touched on the Trump 2028 hats seen on his desk during meetings with congressional Democrats.“It’s so weird to make a hat for a thing that can’t happen,” said Meyers. “Wearing a Trump 2028 hat is like wearing a hat that says Super Bowl champion New York Jets.”“So Trump put some hats on the desk during a meeting with Democrats,” he continued, “and the Democrats in attendance definitely thought it was weird.”As the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from New York, told CNN: “it was the strangest thing ever.”“Come on, the strangest thing ever? Don’t you live Brooklyn?” Meyers laughed. “If someone Rollerbladed into a Brooklyn deli wearing a full mermaid costume, the only thing anyone would say is ‘the usual, Jeff?’“It’s not even the strangest thing Trump has done,” he continued. “Not long before that meeting, he wandered on to the roof of the White House.“Think about how insane this is: this was supposed to be a meeting about keeping the government open, making sure troops get paid and families get nutrition assistance and air traffic controllers can do their jobs,” Meyers added. “And instead the president’s main interest was trolling.“Trump can’t help himself,” he concluded. “The Maga movement cares more about trolling libs than making government function, which is why he keeps going on about this unconstitutional third term.”Stephen Colbert“It was a beautiful day here in America because Donald Trump was out of the country,” said Stephen Colbert on the Late Show. To start the week, Trump was on a “field trip” to Asia, where “he’s going to tear down the Great Wall and put up a ballroom,” Colbert quipped.The trip includes stops in Japan, South Korea and Malaysia, where Trump danced to a marching band in a way that Colbert could only describe as “shuffling and swinging his wrists like a low-battery Chuck E Cheese robot”.In Japan, the new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, reportedly planned to gift Trump a gold golf ball. “It is so sad to see how easy it is to butter up the president of the United States,” Colbert remarked. “OK quick, Trump’s visiting, what are we going to get him this time? Gold burger? Gold TV? Have we tried spray-painting a woman gold?”Colbert also touched on the fourth week of the ongoing government shutdown. “The longer it goes, the more used to having no government we get and then the less likely it is to ever end,” he said.The shutdown is now restricting military pay. But on Friday, an anonymous donor – later identified as Timothy Mellon – gifted $130m to pay troops during the shutdown. “I know that sounds nice, I get it, but I don’t like the idea of the armed forces having a private sponsor,” Colbert said. “I don’t want our next invasion to be code-named ‘Operation Chili’s New El Diablo Triple Dipper Rib Tips: Can You Stand the Heat?’” More

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      Forget diplomatic niceties: it’s beyond time Europe denounced Trump’s trashing of democracy in the US | Paul Taylor

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      What do you do when you discover your best friend is abusive to their partner at home? That question, or something similar, should be addressed to European leaders – and indeed to all of us in the European public space, who are watching, often speechless, as Donald Trump takes a cudgel to the institutions of American democracy.For the last nine months, European leaders have bitten their tongues, looked the other way and engaged in flattery, appeasement and wild promises to keep the US president sweet and engaged in European security. The overwhelming imperative for Trump to stand with Europe against Russia over its war on Ukraine – or at least not against us and alongside Vladimir Putin – has led them to swallow unrealistic defence spending targets and unbalanced trade terms. For what gain?No European leader has publicly contradicted Trump’s inflated claims to have ended eight wars in eight months, nor criticised his demolition of the multilateral rules-based free trade order, his assault on the United Nations, or his selective use of tariffs to pursue political vendettas around the world.The only time European leaders briefly found their voices was when JD Vance used the stage of the Munich security conference to launch a fierce attack on European democracy. Vance accused US allies of suppressing free speech and said he was more worried by “the threat from within … the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values” than by any threat from Russia or China to the continent’s freedom. To underline his support for freedom of anti-immigrant hate speech, he chose to meet the leader of the far-right German AfD Alice Weidel in Munich in the midst of an election campaign, and to snub Berlin’s then-chancellor, Olaf Scholz of the Social Democrats.With millions of Americans now taking to the streets to protest against Trump’s authoritarian drift at home, isn’t it time for European leaders to speak up and assert their moral autonomy by signalling Europe’s support for democracy in the US, and for those who are trying to defend it?This is not to suggest that an expression of European dismay would have any practical effect on the dismantling of checks and balances in the US political system, the abolition of the USAID foreign aid agency, the crackdowns on universities, law firms and science, the abuse of the justice system against political enemies, or the purging of the armed forces and, most alarmingly, the deployment of the military in American cities to combat the “enemy from within”.While the US can protect security in Europe and deserves our undying gratitude for having done so for the last 80 years, Europeans cannot protect democracy in the US. They can and must, however, protect liberal democracy in Europe, which risks becoming a collateral victim of Trump’s domestic and foreign policy agenda.What happens in America doesn’t stay in America. It is often a precursor for trends in Europe. Just as the #MeToo and “woke” movements spilled over from Hollywood studios and US campuses to European film sets and universities, so the tide of illiberalism and repression rising in Washington is already washing up on European shores in countries such as Hungary and Serbia. By speaking up about Trump’s assaults on the independence of the US civil service, judiciary, legal profession, media and armed forces, and his moves to criminalise dissent, European leaders would be asserting the values of the rule of law, the separation of powers and liberal democracy that they have a duty to preserve at home.If Elon Musk can use his social media platform and the world’s biggest fortune to intervene in German elections in favour of Weidel’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) – or in British politics in support of convicted anti-Islam extremist Tommy Robinson – then surely we, too, can make our voices heard in US politics. We can offer support and practical cooperation to states, cities and courts that share our values, and moral support to US freedom campaigners. Our governments and regions can build partnerships on climate action, civil rights and development assistance with like-minded US states and local authorities. We can offer jobs, visas and scholarships to US scientists and academics hit by Trump’s cuts to research funding. Europe stands only to gain from a self-inflicted American brain drain.The massive No Kings protests in towns and cities across the US were fortunately peaceful, despite Trump’s deployment of armed forces in Washington DC, Los Angeles, Memphis, Portland and other cities, and the attempted mobilisation of the National Guard across 19 states. But having branded his leftwing opponents “domestic terrorists”, the risk is growing that Trump will make good on his threat to invokethe 1807 Insurrection Act and claim sweeping powers to use the military against American protesters.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe last time the US military was used for domestic policing against demonstrations was under Richard Nixon in 1970, when the National Guard shot dead four students protesting, at Kent State University in Ohio, against the draft and the US military intervention in Cambodia. An earlier precedent for the deadly use of force against peaceful protesters was in Selma, Alabama in 1965, when state and local police violently broke up civil rights marches by black Americans demanding the unhindered right to vote. On both those historic occasions, European media criticised the use of force against peaceful demonstrators, but governments on this side of the Atlantic kept their mouths shut, motivated by the principle of non-interference in the affairs of an allied state.With the administration and its billionaire buddies intervening at will in support of hate speech and its proponents in Europe and against EU digital regulation, there is no longer any justification for staying silent. On the contrary, the defence of European liberal democracy starts by recognising when it is under threat in our closest ally.

      Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre More

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      Trump comments about a third term spark concern – US politics live

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      Rashida Tlaib, Michigan’s Democratic representative, has criticized comments from Steve Bannon after the former White House aide said that Donald Trump plans to run for a third term.On Monday, Tlaib took to X and wrote:
      “Despite what the Constitution says, Bannon vows Trump will be president for a third term. But they all start crying when we call them fascists. No way in hell we’re going to let that happen.”
      While on his Asia tour, Trump told reporters on Monday that he “would love to do” an unconstitutional third term but ruled out the option of running as a vice-president, saying “Because it’s too cute.”Today brought news of another state kicking off partisan redistricting, the latest in the map wars brewing in legislatures across the country.Donald Trump received a royal welcome in Japan as part of a five-day Asia trip, meeting with Japanese emperor Naruhito.Here’s what else happened today:

      Trump left the door open to a third term, a constitutional impossibility, saying he “would love” to do it but wouldn’t use a vice presidential loophole, which he called “too cute.” “Am I not ruling it out? I mean you’ll have to tell me,” he said in a gaggle on Monday.

      Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib responded to Trump’s refusal to rule out a third term: “No way in hell we’re going to let that happen.”

      In other 2028 news, Gavin Newsom, California’s Democratic governor, told CBS News Sunday Morning he plans to make a decision on whether to run for president in 2028 once the 2026 midterm elections are over.

      The head of America’s largest federal workers union says it is time to end the government shutdown, now the second-longest in US history, as hundreds of thousands of employees miss another round of paychecks.

      Republican speaker of the House Mike Johnson blasted the chamber’s Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries for his endorsement of Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayor’s race.

      And speaking of that shutdown, Johnson was asked whether he would call lawmakers back to Washington. He said he was “evaluating this day by day”.

      Indiana governor Mike Braun announced that he is calling a special session to consider redrawing congressional districts in the state, the latest state to work on its maps ahead of 2026.

      As Republican states launch more redistricting efforts, Democrats in blue states are still deciding how or if they will respond. House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries is said to be headed to Illinois today, while in Virginia, the Democratic House speaker called a special session focused on redistricting.

      As Tesla prepares for a board meeting next week where shareholders will vote on a proposed $1tn pay package for Elon Musk, the board chair told shareholders Musk could leave the company if he doesn’t get the pay increase.
      This blog has been paused for now, but may resume later today pending new developments.The Democratic National Committee said Indiana’s decision to start mid-decade redistricting is part of Trump’s plan to distract from the unpopularity of his Big Beautiful Bill Act, which the committee calls the “big ugly bill”.The committee also pointed to polling that shows majorities of Americans, across the political spectrum, don’t support gerrymandering and believe it is unfair.DNC communications director Rosemary Boeglin said in a statement: “Donald Trump is desperate to rig Indiana’s map because he knows Republicans are at risk of losing their majority in the 2026 midterms, given how unpopular their agenda is. In Indiana, Trump’s Big Ugly Bill kicks 290,000 families off their health insurance and pushes 12 rural hospitals to the brink of closure. Hoosiers should choose their congressional representatives, not have them hand-picked by DC Republican elites.”Rashida Tlaib, Michigan’s Democratic representative, has criticized comments from Steve Bannon after the former White House aide said that Donald Trump plans to run for a third term.On Monday, Tlaib took to X and wrote:
      “Despite what the Constitution says, Bannon vows Trump will be president for a third term. But they all start crying when we call them fascists. No way in hell we’re going to let that happen.”
      While on his Asia tour, Trump told reporters on Monday that he “would love to do” an unconstitutional third term but ruled out the option of running as a vice-president, saying “Because it’s too cute.”The head of America’s largest federal workers union says it is time to end the government shutdown, now the second-longest in US history, as hundreds of thousands of employees miss another round of paychecks.Everett Kelley, who leads the American Federation of Government Employees representing more than 800,000 workers, avoided assigning blame to either party in the Monday morning letter but said lawmakers must stop playing politics and pass a stopgap funding measure to reopen the government, its closure now eclipsing the four-week mark.“Both political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight,” Kelley wrote in the statement. “Today I’m making mine: it’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship.” NBC News first reported the letter.A “clean” continuing resolution is a temporary spending bill that keeps the government running at current funding levels without attaching other political demands. Republicans say they have offered that in their measure, but Democrats argue the bill shortchanges key services and are using their power in the Senate to push for a deal on health insurance subsidies that expire at year’s end.For the full story, click here:At a press conference this morning, Republican speaker of the House Mike Johnson blasted the chamber’s Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries for his endorsement of Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayor’s race.“After a months-long pressure campaign from the far left, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries finally relented. He gave in, and he gave his endorsement to the socialist running to be mayor of New York City,” Johnson said.“The House Democrats have chosen a side they were forced to by that far left that they’re so terrified of, and they’ve shown the world what they really believe. There is no longer a place for centrist and moderates in their party.”Though Mamdani won the city’s Democratic primary in June, Jeffries, who represents part of Brooklyn, waited until Friday to give his endorsement.Johnson has repeatedly bashed the Democratic socialist Mamdani as a “Marxist”, and pressed the attack now that Jeffries had given the candidate his backing.“Zohran Mamdani is expected to take the helm of one of the most important cities in the world and largest city in America, and he now has the full blessing of the Democrat leader in the House of Representatives. It is shocking, and that leader and all the other Democrats are going to co-own the consequences of what they do to America’s largest city,” the speaker said.Johnson’s comments came on the 27th day of a government shutdown that shows no signs of ending. He has kept the House of Representatives out of session for more than a month in a bid to pressure Senate Democrats into accepting a short-term funding bill that his chamber passed before going on recess.Asked at his press conference when he would call lawmakers back to Washington, Johnson said he was “evaluating this day by day”, and added that Republicans are “are doing some of the most meaningful work of their careers” while the House is out of session.Amid the redistricting battles, one important point: Republicans control more state legislatures than Democrats.As the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee puts it on their website urging Democrats to redraw maps, Democrats wouldn’t be able to win an “all-out, state-by-state battle on redistricting”. Republicans legislative majorities oversee 55 Democratic congressional seats; Democratic majorities oversee 35 GOP districts.The DLCC has called on Democrats to go through mid-cycle redistricting to fight against Republicans’ efforts.“The GOP’s ploy to gerrymander itself into power ahead of the 2026 midterms continues to intensify across the country, with Indiana becoming the latest to join the ranks,” campaign committee president Heather Williams said in a statement today. “As state Republicans’ attacks on voters expand, Democrats must meet Republicans’ might and fight back to preserve democracy. The DLCC has called on Democratic state leaders to use all immediate options to push back on Republicans – including mid-cycle redistricting – as we build more durable Democratic majorities. We must fund winning crucial battleground chambers to position Democrats for redistricting parity by the end of the decade.”As Republican states launch more redistricting efforts, Democrats in blue states are still deciding how or if they will respond.House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries is said to be headed to Illinois today to meet with local leaders about redrawing the congressional maps. Punchbowl reports that Jeffries will meet with the Illinois Legislative Black caucus and Black members of Congress, a nod to the fact that Black lawmakers will be needed to pass a new map.Last week, the Illinois Senate Black caucus warned that it wouldn’t support a new map if it dilutes the Black voting population, Punchbowl noted. There are three historically Black districts among Illinois’s 17 congressional seats. Only three of the state’s seats are held by Republicans.Meanwhile, in Virginia, the Democratic House speaker called a special session focused on redistricting, which could add two or three additional Democratic seats. The state’s governor, Republican Glenn Youngkin, called the potential redrawing a “sham” from Democrats who are “desperate for power any way they can get”.Indiana governor Mike Braun announced today that he is calling a special session to consider redrawing congressional districts in the state, the latest state to work on its maps ahead of 2026.Indiana is one of several Republican-led states that the Trump administration has pressured to undertake mid-decade redistricting to favor Republicans, which began with a push in Texas to redraw lines to add Republican seats.California is considering a ballot measure to redraw its lines to favor Democrats, taken in response to Texas. Now, several other states, including Indiana, have cast their efforts at redistricting as a response to California.“I am calling a special legislative session to protect Hoosiers from efforts in other states that seek to diminish their voice in Washington and ensure their representation in Congress is fair,” Braun said in a statement this morning.Republican state lawmakers in some states, including Indiana and Kansas, have pushed back on the idea of redistricting. But Braun has said, if the state doesn’t redraw its maps, “probably, we’ll have consequences of not working with the Trump administration as tightly as we should.”As Tesla prepares for a board meeting next week where shareholders will vote on a proposed $1tn pay package for Elon Musk, the board chair told shareholders Musk could leave the company if he doesn’t get the pay increase.Reuters reports this morning that board chair Robyn Denholm wrote a letter to shareholders saying they should approve Musk’s pay package because he is “critical” to the electric vehicle company’s success.The contours of the pay package are intended to keep Musk at the company for another seven and a half years, she wrote. Tesla’s board is close with Musk – a prior pay deal, in 2018, was recently struck down by a court because the board wasn’t fully independent and the deal was improperly rewarded, according to Reuters.“Without Elon, Tesla could lose significant value, as our company may no longer be valued for what we aim to become,” Denholm wrote.Musk said on the company earnings call last week that he wants to ensure he has control over a “robot army”, a reference to Optimus robots Tesla is building. The pay plan includes increasing Musk’s shares in the company.“If we build this robot army, do I have at least a strong influence over that robot army?” Musk said last week. “I don’t feel comfortable building that robot army if I don’t have at least a strong influence.”Gavin Newsom, California’s Democratic governor, told CBS News Sunday Morning he plans to make a decision on whether to run for president in 2028 once the 2026 midterm elections are over.“Yeah, I’d be lying otherwise,” Newsom said in response to a question on whether he would give serious thought to a White House bid after the 2026 elections. “I’d just be lying. And I’m not – I can’t do that.”Newsom’s term as governor ends in January 2027 and he is not able to run again due to term limits, but cautioned that a decision is years away.“Fate will determine that,” he said.The California governor has emerged as a high-profile critic of the Trump administration through his social media accounts and push of a ballot measure that would increase Democrats’ congressional seats in response to Republican redistricting efforts – a move that has made him a target for critics.The staff supporting the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) were let go earlier this month in a sweeping round of layoffs that gutted entire departments of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Most of the committee’s working groups, which pore over data and help set the agendas, haven’t met for months, and there was little communication from the staff even before they received reduction in force (RIF) notices during the US government shutdown.The ACIP meeting planned for 22-23 October has been indefinitely postponed.The changes mean the US government may not make routine vaccine recommendations for more than half of children in 2026, and they will likely affect the development and recommendation of new vaccines in the pipeline.The ACIP made headlines in June when Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, replaced all of the independent vaccine advisers with his own handpicked advisers, an unprecedented move.Some of these advisers, as well as others added in September, are vocal anti-vaccine activists. But the work of the committee isn’t done only by the independent advisers; it is supported by CDC staff and outside experts on working groups.The CDC staff provide logistical support and subject-matter expertise, and they make sure the committee follows rules and regulations.British journalist Sami Hamdi was reportedly detained on Sunday morning by federal immigration authorities at San Francisco international airport, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) says that action is apparent retaliation for the Muslim political commentator’s criticism of Israel while touring the US.A statement from Cair said it was “a blatant affront to free speech” to detain Hamdi for criticizing Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza while he engaged on a speaking tour in the US. A Trump administration official added in a separate statement that Hamdi is facing deportation.“Our attorneys and partners are working to address this injustice,” Cair’s statement said. The statement also called on US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “to immediately account for and release Mr Hamdi”, saying his only “‘crime’ is criticizing a foreign government” that Cair accused of having “committed genocide”.The press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, wrote of Hamdi in a social media post: “This individual’s visa was revoked, and he is in ICE custody pending removal”.McLaughlin’s post also said: “Those who support terrorism and undermine American national security will not be allowed to work or visit this country.”During his tour, Hamdi spoke on Saturday at the annual gala for Cair’s chapter in Sacramento. He was expected to speak on Sunday at the gala for the Florida chapter of Cair.Treasury secretary Scott Bessent celebrated Japan’s Nikkei share average closing above the 50,000 level for the first time on Monday, in a meeting with Japanese finance minister Satsuki Katayama in Tokyo.“It’s an honor to be here on the day it went over 50,000”, Bessent told Katayama. “Congratulations,” he added.“I’ve been coming since 1991,” said Bessent, a former hedge fund manager known for having made hefty profits for betting against the yen in the 2010s.Bessent arrived in Japan on Monday evening as part of the Asia tour of top US officials led by president Donald Trump and met Katayama for the first time in person since she took office last week.President Donald Trump said on Monday he would rule out running for the vice-presidency in the 2028 US election, an approach some of his supporters have floated to allow the Republican president to serve an additional term in office.“I’d be allowed to do that,” Trump said, in an exchange with reporters aboard Air Force One.But he added:
      I wouldn’t do that. I think it’s too cute. Yeah, I would rule that out because it’s too cute. I think the people wouldn’t like that. It’s too cute. It’s not – it wouldn’t be right.
      No one may be elected to the US presidency a third time, according to the 22nd Amendment of the US Constitution.Some have suggested that one way around this prohibition would be for Trump to stand as vice-president, while another candidate stood for president and resigned, letting Trump again assume the presidency.Opponents have disputed whether this would be legal.The Trump administration’s military airtrikes against boats off Venezuela’s coast that the White House claims were being used for drug trafficking are “extrajudicial killings”, said Rand Paul, the president’s fellow Republican and US senator from Kentucky.Paul’s strong comments on the topic came on Sunday during an interview on Republican-friendly Fox News, three days after Donald Trump publicly claimed he “can’t imagine” federal lawmakers would have “any problem” with the strikes when asked about seeking congressional approval for them.US forces in recent weeks have carried out at least eight strikes against boats in the Caribbean off Venezuela’s coast, killing about 40 people that the Trump administration has insisted were involved in smuggling drugs.Speaking with Fox News Sunday anchor Shannon Bream, Paul asserted that Congress has “gotten no information” on the campaign of strikes from Trump’s administration – despite the president claiming the White House would be open to briefing the federal lawmakers about the offensive.“No one said their name, no one said what evidence, no one said whether they’re armed, and we’ve had no evidence presented,” Paul said of the targeted boats or those on board. He argued that the Trump administration’s actions bring to mind the way China and Iran’s repressive governments have previously executed drug smugglers.“They summarily execute people without presenting evidence to the public,” Paul contended in his conversation with Bream. “So it’s wrong.”Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.We start with the news that president Donald Trump received a royal welcome on Monday in Japan, the latest leg of a five-day Asia trip which he hopes to cap with an agreement on a trade war truce with Chinese president Xi Jinping.Trump, making his longest journey abroad since taking office in January, announced deals with four Southeast Asian countries during the first stop in Malaysia and is expected to meet Xi in South Korea on Thursday, Reuters reported.Trump shook hands with officials on the tarmac and gave a few fist pumps, before his helicopter whisked him off for a scenic night tour of Tokyo. His motorcade was later seen entering the Imperial Palace grounds, where he met Japanese emperor Naruhito.Trump has already won a $550-billion investment pledge from Tokyo in exchange for respite from punishing import tariffs.Japan’s newly elected prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, is hoping to further impress Trump with promises to purchase US pickup trucks, soybeans and gas, and announce an agreement on shipbuilding, sources with knowledge of the plans told Reuters.Takaichi, who became Japan’s first female premier last week, told Trump that strengthening their countries’ alliance was her “top priority” in a telephone call on Saturday.Trump said he was looking forward to meeting Takaichi, a close ally of his late friend and golfing partner, former prime minister Shinzo Abe, adding: “I think she’s going to be great.”In other developments:

      The US and China have agreed a framework for a trade deal just days before Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping are due to meet. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said the agreement, forged on the sidelines of the Association of south-east Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Malaysia on Sunday, would remove the threat of the imposition of 100% tariffs on Chinese imports starting on 1 November and include “a final deal” on the sale of TikTok in the US.

      Trump has overseen the signing of a ceasefire agreement between Thailand and Cambodia on the first day of an Asia tour. The US president arrived in Malaysia on Sunday before the Asean summit in the capital, Kuala Lumpur. At a ceasefire ceremony in front of a sign that read “Delivering Peace”, the Thai prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, and his Cambodian counterpart, Hun Manet, signed an expanded ceasefire deal related to a deadly five-day conflict in July.

      The council of American-Islamic relations (Cair) has accused the Trump administration of a “blatant affront to free speech” after federal immigration authorities detained British journalist, Sami Hamdi, on Sunday. The Muslim civil rights organization claimed that Hamdi had been detained at San Fransisco airport for criticising Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza. Hamdi is one of several people who have been arrested and deported by ICE for expressing pro-Palestinian views.

      On the day that his supporters attacked the US Capitol because his 2020 re-election run ended in defeat, Donald Trump called his vice-president at the time, Mike Pence, and told him he would go down in history as a “wimp” if he certified the election result, a new book says.

      Gavin Newsom, California’s Democratic governor, told CBS News Sunday Morning he plans to make a decision on whether to run for president in 2028 once the 2026 midterm elections are over. “Yeah, I’d be lying otherwise,” Newsom said in response to a question on whether he would give serious thought to a White House bid after the 2026 elections. “I’d just be lying. And I’m not – I can’t do that.” More

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      A third term for Trump would be unconstitutional. Here’s why

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      Donald Trump has declined to definitively say he will not seek an unconstitutional third term as US president. “I would love to do it: I have my best numbers ever,” the 79-year-old told reporters on Air Force One during a trip to Asia. Pressed on whether he was not ruling out a third term, he said: “Am I not ruling it out? I mean, you’ll have to tell me.”Why all the talk of Trump 2028?While this has been an ongoing theme with the president, the Trump Organization is now selling $50 red caps that read “Trump 2028”, appearing to promote the president as a candidate in the next election. Trump relishes showing the caps to foreign leaders and earlier this month placed them in front of Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer during budget talks in the Oval Office. Jeffries told CNN: “It was the strangest thing ever.”Meanwhile a thinktank called Third Term Project is “devoted to getting President Donald J Trump his rightful third term in office”. And in an interview last week with the Economist magazine, Maga guru Steve Bannon said: “Trump is going to be president in ’28, and people ought to just get accommodated with that. At the appropriate time, we’ll lay out what the plan is. But there is a plan.”But what does the constitution say?The 22nd amendment states in part: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.” The amendment was ratified in 1951 after Franklin Roosevelt broke with a self-imposed two-term limit set by presidents since George Washington, the nation’s first.Roosevelt, a Democrat who was president during the Great Depression and the second world war, served a third term and then died months into his fourth term in 1945.Wayne Unger, a law professor at Quinnipiac University, told the Reuters news agency that the constitution is clear: presidents are limited to two terms of four years each. Unger said that while that had not been tested in court, any challenge by Trump would likely be unsuccessful. “I would predict the supreme court to say nope, it’s clear, two terms of four years each, Donald Trump, you cannot run for a third.”Could Trump’s allies change the constitution?Ronald Reagan publicly supported repealing the 22nd amendment, telling an interviewer that he “wouldn’t do that for myself, but for presidents from here on”. But that is a very long shot in an era of hyper-polarisation between Democrats and Trump’s Republican party.Any constitutional amendment would require two-thirds support in the House of Representatives and Senate or a convention called by two-thirds of the states, and then ratification by 38 of the 50 state legislatures. Republicans hold a razor-thin 219-213 majority in the House and a 53-47 majority in the Senate. Republicans control 28 state legislatures.In January Andy Ogles, a Republican congressman from Tennessee and ardent Trump supporter, proposed changing the 22nd amendment to allow people to serve three non-consecutive terms as president. Since Trump’s terms starting in 2017 and 2025 were non-consecutive, the amendment would allow him to serve a third term starting in 2029.Could Trump run as vice-president then take over?Trump’s allies argue that the 22nd amendment only explicitly bars a person from being “elected” to more than two presidential terms but says nothing about “succession”.On Monday, however, Trump dismissed the idea that he could run as vice-president and then have the candidate for president resign immediately after taking office, which would return him to the presidency. “I’d be allowed to do that,” Trump said in an exchange aboard Air Force One before adding: “I think the people wouldn’t like that. It’s too cute.”However, Trump is barred from running for vice-president because he is not eligible to be president. The 12th amendment to the constitution reads: “No person constitutionally ineligible to the office of president shall be eligible to that of vice-president of the United States.”Are there any other loopholes?Another theory is that Trump could become speaker of the House – which does not necessarily require him to be a member of the House – and ascend via the Presidential Succession Act if both the president and vice-president are incapacitated.While theoretically possible as a non-elected path to the presidency, this has never been tested and would face immediate supreme court challenges. Scholars such as Unger predict that the court would rule it unconstitutional because the 22nd amendment’s intent is to limit total service, not just elections. More