The strategy behind the presidency

THE WORST THING WE READ™

When Should You Believe Donald Trump?

OVER THE WEEKEND, President Donald Trump told NBC News that "a lot of people want me" to run for a third term, and that "there are methods which you could do it." NBC presented the topic in a bit of a leading manner—what it specifically reported was that Trump "did not rule out the possibility of seeking a third term in the White House"—but once he'd been led there, he settled in: 

“I’m not joking,” Trump said, when asked to clarify. “But I’m not—it is far too early to think about it.”

Despite the bit about it being "far too early," or his telling NBC he was "focused on the current," the part where he said he wasn't joking stuck out. Previously, Trump's musings about violating the 22nd Amendment's presidential term limit tended to be gag lines at rallies, wrapped in layers of understanding between him and his audience that he was saying a naughty thing, and that he might not really mean it, but that he also might not not really mean it, but really the point was how mad his enemies—their enemies—would be that he'd said such a thing, but also then just imagine how mad they would be if he really did do it. Not that he was going to! But if he did—

Now, he's gone from not seriously talking about it to talking about it but not being seriously interested in it. Not yet. What does "too early" mean, if not that there will be another time later on? 

The New York Times, however, under its "News Analysis" rubric, responded to the news by telling its readers that Trump was not really that interested in taking a third term at all.