Bill Maher is worried that it’ll be “Donald Trump forever,” and the U.S. won’t “ever see another election.”
The comedian spoke with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria for his Sunday episode of Fareed Zakaria GPS after his appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday.
Maher explained that “power begets power” and added his stunning opinion on future elections—or lack of.
“When you have power, it allows you to get more power. And now they have all the power,” Maher said. “That’s not good. I’m not sure we will ever see another election.”
Maher pointed out that Trump “tried to stay in power” after his first term ended in January 2021, before he was “stopped.”
“He’s replacing those people who stopped him last time with loyalists, which is what he has been doing,“ Maher explained.
He then stated that the MAGA movement believes that it is their “patriotic duty” to attain its version of democracy at any cost, even if that means contravening true, or current, democracy in the process.
“It is our patriotic duty, they think, to stay in office no matter what that takes. It’s a little like the old ‘we have to destroy the village to save it.’ To save democracy, we have to not have democracy,” Maher explained.
He suggested this strength of feeling has created the perfect conditions for “Donald Trump forever.”
Maher said: “They’re chanting ‘Trump 2028.’ Put that on page one of things we never used to see in America before—a guy who is already had in his second term, and they’re chanting for the third term. Nobody even thought to do that. It’s a joke now: ‘Ha ha, get it? We’re ending democracy.’ Yeah, except that today’s joke becomes a little more realistic.”
According to the Constitution, no one can be elected president a third time. “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice,” reads the 22nd Amendment.
Experts have nevertheless warned there may be several ways in which Trump could attempt to remain in office, including by amending the Constitution, making a pact with a presidential candidate who picks Trump as his running mate, or even just flat out ignoring constitutional restrictions.
