But being a candidate is no guarantee of winning, and like both Bolsonaro senior and junior, the second he is not protected from prosecution by occupying elected office (which is itself legally questionable: the framers never wanted another king), his status becomes only that of a private citizen under multiple criminal investigations.
Should he run again and lose – or even do the normal thing and walk away when his current term is over – he is looking at a lifetime of investigations, prosecutorial attempts at conviction, and legal fees that over time would add up to more than the national budget of some small countries (I’m not even joking).
Only the presidency keeps him from that. If our democracy isn’t dead by then, the next US president will be elected in November 2028 and Trump will be out of office and out of time.
He thinks he can run for a third term. While a third term is blatantly unconstitutional, and similar constitutional terms should have kept him off the ballot in 2024, he survived those legal challenges somehow and remained a candidate.
But being a candidate is no guarantee of winning, and like both Bolsonaro senior and junior, the second he is not protected from prosecution by occupying elected office (which is itself legally questionable: the framers never wanted another king), his status becomes only that of a private citizen under multiple criminal investigations.
Should he run again and lose – or even do the normal thing and walk away when his current term is over – he is looking at a lifetime of investigations, prosecutorial attempts at conviction, and legal fees that over time would add up to more than the national budget of some small countries (I’m not even joking).
Only the presidency keeps him from that. If our democracy isn’t dead by then, the next US president will be elected in November 2028 and Trump will be out of office and out of time.