Donald Trump’s wild third term ‘loophole’; global protests against Elon Musk
Donald Trump has revealed the bizarre “method” that could help him re-enter the White House for a third term, as protesters rally against tech billionaire Elon Musk. See the video, follow updates.
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Donald Trump has given the strongest indicator yet he might pursue a third term in the White House, saying there are avenues he could take to secure a third presidency despite the US constitution prohibiting it.
Mr Trump has frequently teased the possibility of another run at the presidency but said he was “not joking” about the possibility during an interview with NBC.
“There are methods which you could do it,” Mr Trump said.
Asked whether one avenue back to the White House could involve current Vice President JD Vance winning the election and then passing the presidency to Mr Trump, he said “well, that’s one. But there are others too.”
It came amid growing global protests outside Tesla dealerships in opposition to Elon Musk’s role as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency.
Angry demonstrators gathered in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where Mr Musk attended a town hall meeting ahead of the election to choose a new supreme court judge in the northern US state.
Mr Musk has donated millions to support candidate Brad Schimel in the race, hoping to secure a conservative win over liberal candidate Susan Crawford.
Speaking on stage, Mr Musk told attendees the Wisconsin Supreme Court race would “affect the entire destiny of humanity”.
Hundreds of anti-Musk protesters gathered on the weekend in major US cities including Washington DC, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Seattle, as well as small towns in Virginia, Pennsylvania and Colorado.
Protests also took place in Canada as well as London, Berlin and Paris.
Under his new role, the tech billionaire has gained access to sensitive data and closed entire agencies as he attempts to slash government spending.
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‘LIES’: VACCINE OFFICIAL SLAMS RFK
America’s top vaccine official, who was allegedly forced out of his role after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr took charge, has made a dig at the Trump administration in his resignation letter.
Dr Peter Marks, who has worked at the Food and Drug Administration since 2012, said he had been “willing to work” with Mr Kennedy, a well-known vaccine sceptic, on vaccine safety.
In his letter, Dr Marks complained of an “unprecedented assault on scientific truth” being pushed by Mr Kennedy and his supporters.
“It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,” he said.
Dr Marks continued, “Rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.
“My hope is that during the coming years, the unprecedented assault on scientific truth that has adversely impacted public health in our nation comes to an end so that the citizens of our country can fully benefit from the breadth of advances in medical science.”
‘NOT TRUE’: ATLANTIC EDITOR ON SIGNAL SCANDAL
The editor of The Atlantic has dismissed national security adviser Mike Waltz’s claim about how the journalist was included in a Trump administration Signal group text chat abut the bombing of Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Mr Waltz has claimed the editor’s phone number was mysteriously “sucked into” his mobile hone before being included in a Signal group chat about Yemen air strikes.
“This isn’t ‘The Matrix’. Phone numbers don’t just get sucked into other phones,” The Atlantic magazine’s editor in chief said in an interview with NBC.
“I don’t know what he’s talking about there. You know, very frequently in journalism, the most obvious explanation is the explanation.
“My phone number was in his phone because my phone number is in his phone.”
Mr Waltz, a former Florida congressman, claimed last week that he had never spoken with or met Mr Goldberg, even though a photo shows the men standing together at a 2021 event.
“He’s telling everyone that he’s never met me or spoken to me. That’s just simply not true,” Mr Goldberg said.
TRUMP’S DIRE WARNING TO IRAN
Donald Trump has threatened that Iran will be bombed if it persists in developing nuclear weapons.
“If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing,” NBC News said the US president told one of its correspondents in an interview on the weekend.
It said he also threatened to punish Iran with what he called “secondary tariffs.”
Mr Trump’s language represented a sharpening of his comment a few days earlier that if Tehran refused to negotiate a new nuclear agreement, “bad, bad things are going to happen to Iran.”
It was not clear whether Mr Trump was threatening bombing by US planes alone or perhaps in an operation co-ordinated with Israel.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told Politico late last month that “in order to stop a nuclear Iranian program before it will be weaponised, a reliable military option should be on the table.”
Analysts have said Iran may be just weeks away from producing a deliverable nuclear weapon — though Tehran denies it is building such arms.
Either way, such an attack carries a risk of spreading to a wider conflict.
DENMARK BLASTS VANCE OVER ‘TONE’
Denmark has hit back at US Vice President JD Vance, saying it did not like the “tone” of his comments about Copenhagen not having done enough for Greenland during a visit to the strategically placed, resource-rich Danish territory coveted by Mr Trump.
“We are open to criticisms, but let me be completely honest, we do not appreciate the tone in which it’s being delivered,” Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said on X.
“This is not how you speak to your close allies, and I still consider Denmark and the United States to be close allies,” he said.
Mr Vance made his comments during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, viewed by both Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation.
“Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Mr Vance told a press conference.
“You have under-invested in the people of Greenland and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this incredible, beautiful landmass,” he added.
He urged “extremely vulnerable” Greenlanders to break free from Denmark and “cut a deal” with America to protect them from China and Russia.
Mr Vance said it was time for Greenland to declare independence from Denmark and look to America for protection.
“We need to wake up from a failed 40 year consensus that said that we could ignore the encroachment of powerful countries as they expand to their ambitions,” Mr Vance said.
“We can’t just bury our head in the sand or in Greenland, bury our head in the snow and pretend that the Chinese are not interested in this very large land mass.
“We know that they are.”
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen also hit back at Mr Vance in a statement.
“For many years, we have stood by the Americans in very difficult situations,” she said, referring to Danish combat deployments alongside American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The Vice President’s reference to Denmark is not accurate,” she said.
Denmark’s King Frederik, who took part in a four-month, 3,500-kilometre ski expedition across Greenland in 2000, spoke out for the first time since Mr Trump’s return to the White House.
“There should be no doubt about my love for Greenland, and my connection to the Greenlandic people is intact,” he told Danish television TV2.
“We live in an altered reality,” King Frederik wrote on the royal Instagram page.
‘WE NEED GREENLAND FOR WORLD PEACE’: TRUMP
Donald Trump said that the United States needs to take over Greenland for “world peace,” as he doubled down on his ambitions to annex the strategically placed, resource-rich Danish territory.
“We are not talking about peace for the United States. We are talking about world peace. We are talking about international security,” Mr Trump told reporters at the White House.
Mr Trump also released a cinematic video montage detailing the shared history of Greenland and America while selling the idea of a future together.
On the video shared to social media by the US President, a narrator explains: “In 1943, nearly a thousand American soldiers with four chaplains set forth from New York to Greenland, carrying with them hope, duty and a quiet fear. But their ship was torpedoed by a Nazi U-boat and the frigid waters of the North Atlantic became a grave.
“Greenland faces threats from Russian aggression and Chinese expansion. Our shared legacy lives on in every mission, every Arctic patrol, every partnership forged in the shadows of melting ice and rising tensions … This is not just history – it is destiny. Now is the time to stand together again – for peace, for security and for the future.”
GREENLAND FORMS NEW GOVERNMENT TO COMBAT ‘FOREIGN INTERFERENCE’
Hours before Mr Vance landed in Greenland, political leaders in the self-governing Danish territory agreed to form a broad four-party government “to face the heavy pressure” from the US, the new Prime Minister said.
The announcement of the new government – which does not include the ultranationalist party – came as the prime ministers of both Denmark and Greenland criticised the visit as putting “unacceptable pressure” on Copenhagen and Nuuk and qualified it as “foreign interference” and “inappropriate”.
“It is very important that we put aside our disagreements and differences … because only in this way will we be able to cope with the heavy pressure we are exposed to from outside,” Greenland’s new Prime Minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, told reporters as he presented the new government.
TRUMP PRAISES NEW CANADIAN PM
US President Donald Trump said he had an “extremely productive” first call on Friday with Canada’s new Prime Minister Mark Carney, after soaring tensions over tariffs and Trump’s wish to annex his northern neighbour.
Mr Trump added that the two planned to meet soon after Canada’s April 28 general election in which Carney – who took office two weeks ago – has made standing up to the US president the focus of his campaign.
“I just finished speaking with Prime Minister Mark Carney, of Canada. It was an extremely productive call, we agree on many things,” Mr Trump said on his Truth Social network.
Mr Carney’s office said the pair had a “very constructive conversation” and agreed to begin “comprehensive negotiations about a new economic and security relationship immediately following the election.”
It added, however, that Mr Carney told his US counterpart that his government would impose retaliatory tariffs on American goods from April 2, when sweeping US levies are set to come into place.
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Originally published as Donald Trump’s wild third term ‘loophole’; global protests against Elon Musk
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