Donald Trump is Going to Be Disqualified from Running for Office – Former President Donald Trump has been sucking up all the oxygen in the ongoing 2024 Presidential Race.
One of the main reasons that he’s been the center of all attention, aside from the fact that he is a former president running for reelection (after having lost his first reelection bid in 2020), is because of all the indictments that he’s been racking up over the last several months.
One specific indictment should be most concerning to the former president whose political—and legal—future rests on his ability to win reelection. That’s the ongoing federal grand jury investigation into Trump’s alleged involvement in the January 6 Capitol Hill riot.
Trump has already been indicted on four counts by the Department of Justice (DOJ) Special Counselor Jack Smith (who is also leading the DOJ grand jury investigation into claims that the former president mishandled classified documents) related to the January 6 riots.
Should Trump be found guilty at the end of his ongoing trial then, according to two prominent law professors, under an obscure rule of the Fourteenth Amendment, Trump would be legally disqualified from running for president.
Interestingly, the fact that Trump is indicted—or even if he were to be found guilty of any of the other crimes he’s been indicted for this year—University of Michigan law professors argue that he’d still be constitutionally allowed to run for president.
In fact, Trump might even be able to assume office as a convicted felon, if he were to win reelection even after having been found guilty of his purported crimes.
Donald Trump Is Going to Create a ‘Constitutional Crisis’?
That is, except for the January 6 riots.
If he were to be found guilty, the forty-fifth president would likely be unable to run for reelection.
That’s because the Fourteenth Amendment, which was passed in the wake of the Civil War, has a clause in it that bars any person who has been convicted of attempting to sow insurrection from holding public office.
While it is not well known, the clause has already been used to great effect in a case involving a January 6 rioter.
In that case, the New Mexico Supreme Court found that Couy Griffin, the founder of “Cowboys for Trump,” was permanently barred from holding public office because of his involvement with the January 6 riot. Of course, this decision is being appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS).
It remains to be seen how the conservative-leaning SCOTUS will ultimately decide the case (or even if it will be taken up by the SCOTUS).
But, if they did take it up, the SCOTUS decision on the Griffin case from New Mexico could have a massive ripple effect on Donald Trump’s prospects as a presidential candidate.
The article claiming that Trump would be disqualified from running for office under the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution was written not by two bleeding heart Liberals. Instead, it was penned by two prominent members of the conservative Federalist Society (the same group that former President Trump relied exclusively to identify potential nominees to the SCOTUS while he was in the White House).
Of course, there are plenty of “Never Trump” type conservatives on the Right—including in the Federalist Society—but the fact remains that this attack on Trump’s legitimacy as a candidate is not coming from the Left. It is coming from his own side of the aisle.
I suspect that this is the case that the Democrats will make once Trump is indicted for January 6 (and it seems as though that is all but a fait accompli).
Whether they have a real case or not, the January 6 case is being argued before a Washington, D.C.-based court.
Trump Won’t Get a Fair Trial
Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic Party’s presidential nominee who faced off against Trump, won 90.9 percent of Washington, D.C.’s voters. Four years later, Joe Biden won a whopping 92.1 percent of the Washington, D.C. vote.
Thus, the expectation that Trump will even get a fair trial is somewhat absurd. That Trump’s own actions (or lack thereof in some cases) and statements on January 6 have at least helped to fuel the fire that is the Left’s investigation into that event. Should Trump be indicted, the Democrats will use the Fourteenth Amendment to argue that he should be disbarred from running.
We are positioning yet another important national election to be decided by the Supreme Court. Take notice, my fellow Americans. Our democracy is failing us.
A 19FortyFive Senior Editor, Brandon J. Weichert is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, as well as at American Greatness and the Asia Times. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower (Republic Book Publishers), Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life (Encounter Books), and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy (July 23). Weichert can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
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