Trump keeps 'joking' about staying in office longer than 8 years

(Image credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

published 13 December 2019

One style of comedy involves repetition — you say something over and over again until people find it hilarious. President Trump has a running "joke" about staying in office for 12 years, or 16 years, or — given his advanced age — for life. He's just saying it to annoy the media, he says. He's seriously considering the idea only because comedian Bill Maher mentioned it once, he jokes. Really, folks, he's just kidding, he insists.

Aspiring comedian Mike Huckabee wanted in on Trump's "joke" Thursday. (He wasn't on Sean Hannity's Fox News show — maybe he was bumped by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — comedy's a rough business, folks.)

Still, you can see the appeal for a joker like Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and father of Trump's former press secretary. Listen to the peals of laugher as Trump tells his "joke" during a rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday. "I'm only kidding — media, I'm only kidding," Trump said, predicting (incorrectly) that reporters would glom on to his pronouncement with earnest concerns about him violating the 22nd Amendment.

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Trump was similarly "joking" when he did the same bit at a speech to a Jewish group last weekend that also contained what appeared to be anti-Semitic tropes.

Relax, folks, he's only kidding. Get it?

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.