Fox analyst: Trump third-term talk makes Vance look like 'Mini-Me'

Fox News analyst Jonathan Turley said President Trump floating the idea of a third term is not fair to potential Republican successors like Vice President Vance.

“There’s also a cost to this that may not be fair to people like Vance or others who are going to run,” Turley said Monday on Fox. “All of this talk tends to diminish them."

Part of Trump’s legacy, Turley said, "will be securing the White House for a Republican," after he leaves office.

"And this type of talk reduces figures like Vance to sort of Mini-Mes and that’s not a good thing for them," he continued in comments first highlighted by Mediate. "It’s not fair to people like Vance. So, this does appear ... something of a jump scare. With the exception of amending the Constitution, it does not seem particularly credible.”

Trump over the weekend told NBC News he was "not joking" about the possibility of running for a third term, despite the constitutional limits of doing so.

Some pundits and lawmakers have suggested Trump is insisting on the idea as a means of distracting from other controversies his administration has stirred during his first three months in office.

The speculation also comes months after Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) proposed an amendment to the U.S. Constitution in January that would Trump to serve a third term. Ogles said it would allow the country to "sustain the bold leadership our nation so desperately needs.” 

The president's latest comments are the farthest he has gone to date in addressing the prospect of a third term — even after he recently downplayed the conversation as being too early into his second term.