MSNBC panel melts down as Trump doesn't rule out a third term: 'Consider it a constitutional threat'

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: An MSNBC panel had a meltdown after President Donald Trump said he has not ruled out the possibility of running for a third term.

During an NBC interview on Sunday, March 30, the POTUS said that there were certain methods through which he could seek a third term, though it is prohibited by the Constitution under the 22nd Amendment.

MSNBC panel melts down as Trump says he is serious about a third term

During the interview, Trump said he was "not joking" about serving another White House term.

After the POTUS dropped the bombshell, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also confirmed that the president is serious about his intentions, per Daily Mail.

During MSNBC's 'Alex Witt Reports', analyst and former Florida Congressman David Jolly was furious about the president attempting to be the first person since former POTUS Franklin Delano Roosevelt to serve more than two terms.

He was asked if he believed Trump would break with tradition and run again, and he said, "I believe them. I think the biggest mistake of the last eight years is we somehow fail to give credibility to Donald Trump's whims and his impulses, but we know it's true. And January 6th was a perfect example."

He continued, "If he says that he's not ruling it out, he's not ruling out, then we should consider it a constitutional threat."

Meanwhile, GOP political analyst Susan Del Percio said that Trump's statement was a tactic to distract everyone from the Signal chat leak scandal by his administration.

She said, "He's been pushing the envelope on testing the Constitution, so I expect that he'll continue to do that, maybe by seeking out a third term."

"But more importantly, short term, we're not talking about Signal and that scandal if we are talking about Trump's third term," Del Percio said.

Democrat strategist Don Calloway also agreed that the Democrats would do well to take the president seriously, per Daily Mail.

He said, "And the mainstream media and all of us on the left kind of blow it off as silly or improbable or unconstitutional. That doesn't matter to these folks. And I think you should take a third term or an effort at a third term as a legitimate campaign promise at this point."

Donald Trump says people want him to 'run again'

On the flight from Florida to DC on March 30, Trump touted his successes on immigration and border control, saying "people are amazed", according to Daily Mail.

He said, "I think we've had the best almost 100 Days of any president."

He added that he visited "some very important people" earlier that day and they told the POTUS that they had "never seen a turnaround of a country as fast as this."

Meanwhile, a reporter stated how the US Constitution limits a president to only serving two terms, but was interrupted by Trump who said, "I don't even want to talk about it."

The POTUS then added, "I'm just telling you that I've had more people say 'please run again'. I said, 'We have a long way to go before we even think about that.'"

Notably, the 22nd Amendment limits presidents to two terms. However, there are some scenarios where Trump could remain in the White House beyond the due date, per the outlet.

Meanwhile, Daily Mail reported on March 30 that a loophole in the amendment paves the way for Trump to serve a third term, and potentially a fourth one as well, until January 2037, when the POTUS would be aged 90.

The 22nd Amendment reads, "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once."

The loophole in the 22nd Amendment is mentioned in a 1999 Minnesota Law Review article co-authored by Professor Bruce Peabody and titled 'The Twice and Future President', per Daily Mail.

The article states how the Amendment has led to "widespread misunderstanding" and also mentions that the idea that the twice-elected president is "constitutionally prohibited" from serving again is "decidedly incorrect", per the outlet.