Can Trump still run for president now that he's a convicted felon?

He can, because there's no law against it. Probably nobody thought there'd ever need to be!

As an outsider that’s pretty wild. So you can’t buy a firearm but you can be president and control them all. Like what?
- Actually the thought is if the government can just imprison you to stop your candidacy, they have too much power.
  
  Thus they can continue to run.
- Remember, there is a mechanism that prevents criminals from winning elections and holding offices, it's the one that's the best one in a democracy. The voters.
  
  It's not good to give governments the power to decide who does and doesn't deserve to hold authority, it is good to let voters decide if someone's crimes are relevant to the election.
  
  Sadly, it seems many Americans do not agree with me that trump is not suitable for office. Hopefully enough do that they decide not to vote for him
- The concern of the founding fathers was that one state would have political reasons to rush a trial and get a legitimate candidate convicted of a crime in their court. If the conviction was legitimate, it was supposed to be handled by the Electors of the Electoral College.
- Our lack of laws around the POTUS are a glaring. It's insane that a judge can preside over a case where the defendant is a former president who appointed them. Like Judge Cannon and 3 members of the SCOTUS.
- Don't forget, it's not like he has a right to the presidency. The president is voted in. So technically speaking the people decide if the felonies make a difference or not
- Also, you can't vote in many regressive, discriminatory states but they'd like up in their Klan hoods to vote this felon into office as there is no restriction on becoming president. Rules for thee
- Cant vote either
My man Eugen Debbs ran from prison in the early 1900s. He was thrown in prison for speaking out again the war (the first amendment wasn’t much protection back in the day).

It is good that he could run, since he was a political prisoner. He advocated for the common man against the corrupt institutions.
- Agreed. There are situations where it totally makes sense to have a felon run for president. This isn’t one of them
But the kicker is that he isn’t allowed to vote right? New York restore voting rights after you have completed your sentence if I remember correctly.
- He's a Florida resident now, but I believe they also take away the right to vote for felons until their sentence is complete.
Keep in mind that the founding fathers were guilty of what would have been considered a lot of grave crimes by England, which was formerly the jurisdiction that applied to them.

So they probably wouldn't have had a huge appetite for blocking political rights of criminals given their recent standing.
- Ha, fair point.
I find it wild that a felon loses their right to vote, but they could run for office. So he could run for president, but he can't vote for himself. 🤨
- That's one less vote for him, at least
- A felon also loses their 2nd amendment rights.
If a convicted felon loses their right to vote, they should not be allowed to run for president.
And if he wins again, he's going to Pardon everybody who buys one from him. Including himself. Because there's no law against it, and nobody thought that there ever needed to be for that either.
- He can't pardon himself for this one, it's a State level crime, not a Federal one.

You'd think the bad publicity alone would be enough to destroy any chance of election. You'd think.

Yeah, one would really think
But his supporters don't do any such thing as "thinking."
Haha, if only
Bad publicity is relative.

The "bad publicity" when he is an odious asshole? His base loves that, they think they all should be able to say that stuff out loud.

Legal problems? Well they firmly believe it's just a conspiracy to witch hunt and every case serves only to fuel their persecution complex

Anything else? Lies by the liberal media, they see the truth on Fox News. When Fox News even reports on it, then they shun them and off to newsmax or just their favorite Facebook posts.
You'd think...

...but what does the government have?

Yes, and it's important that felons be able to run for president. Were that not the case, a corrupt enough system could just disqualify anyone that would seek to oust it.

This is true.

But, it must also be pointed out that that's another case of good faith actors getting fucked by assholes. In theory this sounds good, like free speech and tolerance for all. But when you are dealing with criminals and sociopaths those virtues get used against you.
- Absolutely, and it's infuriating. The only thing that can stand between criminals and sociopaths is the vote, and a too much of the vote is controlled by morons.
- Like republicans do consistently.
- Yeah but honestly without implementing 'one true philosophy' I can't see any ground to stand on where they shouldn't be allowed to.
  
  What if god comes down tomorrow and says 'the fuck you guys are keeping babies instead of killing them?!?'
  
  To us we really got no frame of reference of an absolute 'good faith' or bad, so enforcing it just seems like encouraging abuse of the system.
I feel as if I've seen this before...
- Something something birth certificate?
- I don't know what you're referencing, sorry if im a bit dense haha

Yup! Because that's the law. The original idea was to keep people in power from being able to outmaneuver their opponents by having them arrested. That was back when politicians and corporations had some level of public accountability though.

So felons can run for president, they just can't vote for who they want though?
- Debs ran from prison (for the high crime of telling people that WWI was none of our business and people shouldn't enlist to get turned toa pink mist in Belgium) in 1920
  
  As for voting as a felon, that varies state to state. I don't think there's anyplace that allows people to vote from prison, but quite a few states let convicted felons vote once they've completed their sentence and any parole that follows it (and in some states, pay additional fines, which sounds a bit like a poll tax to me, but I'm not one of our nine kritarchs, so what do I know about that sort of thing?)
  
  As for people running for office when they couldn't vote, Elizabeth Cady Stanton ran for office well before she could have voted, and the first woman elected to Congress (Jeanette Rankin) was elected in 1916, several years before women's suffrage was added to the constitution, though her state, Montana, had allowed women to vote already.
- Sadly, Florida, where Trump lives, defers to the State of conviction, and in NY, as long as you aren't currently in prison, you can vote.

The Constitution spells out who is eligible to run for President, and does not say criminals are ineligible. It's as simple as that.

I do find it odd that you guys put so much emphasis on a document written in a time nothing like today.

Like surely it should evolve, but I can see how that would go right now so it’s probably for the best.
- We do amend the Constitution from time to time, but it takes a 2/3 vote in both houses of Congress, plus ratification by 3/4 of states. so it's quite a high bar.
- Just because an idea is old, doesn't mean its a bad idea. And we do have mechanisms for modifying the constitution. We just don't do it often because it requires a lot of agreement.
- Yeah it's because Americans are fucking terrible at governing.
  
  The vast, vast majority of Americans do not care about their elected officials. Most do not even know who they are, and just vote based on party affiliation or don't vote at all. Our government structure also fundamentally doesn't work, and we would be far better served adopting a parliamentary system like the rest of the developed world, but nobody cares enough to do anything. Our courts are corrupt thanks to Donald Trump, gerrymandering means our elections are hardly fair, the list goes on.
  
  America has an apathetic government that accomplishes very little and is easily captured by hostile forces because it is exactly the level of government Americans are willing to put in the effort for.
- We do too trust me
- We don't have parliamentary supremacy. What we have is what we have. A rough equivalent is that (assuming you're a UK citizen) the Lords could still veto bills and the Commons couldn't force the issue.

Yep, cause the constitution doesn’t forbid felons from running for president.

It forbids them from ever voting again though.
- The Constitution doesn't do that, that's up to the states. Also, you don't have to be eligible to vote to be the president. The US Constitution outlines the only eligibility requirements for the president.

The congress can still impeach Trump for a third time even though he's not in office, and if the Senate convicts, they can ban him from ever holding public office again.

I'll take things that'll never happen for $100

Yes. And he's not the first to run a campaign from prison (though he likely won't go to prison for the 34 felonies. Prison is extremely rare for those kinds of charges. even if he wasn't trump.)

some more info

Cohen did time for the exact same crime
- This is incorrect.
  
  Cohen plead guilty to tax evasion and campaign finance violations
  
  Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records
  
  Not only is the substance of the charge different, Cohen's crimes were federal where Trump's conviction is state.
  
  the charges that trump is guilty of, the sentencing very, very rarely includes prison time. (because we live in a fucked up country where you can get away with anything as long as you're a business.)

yes, felons can campaign for president and be elected. technically it's even legal for the president to be locked behind bars while serving.

The sad part is that despite being a convicted felon he will most likely never see the inside of a jail cell.
I wonder if the secret service would need to be locked in the cell with him.

Yes. The constitution is actually shockingly specific about what the qualifications are. Article II, Section 1, Clause 5:

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

No other qualifications can be considered, barring a Constitutional Amendment.

That constitutional amendment being the 14th
- So far that hasn’t really been tested in court, and when it has (Trump v. Anderson) it’s not been upheld in that way.
  
  Look I’m not saying I like it. I’m saying it’s not really that straightforward.
Where does it say that no other qualifications can be considered? It certainly lists a lot of qualifications that are required, but doesn't say that it's an exhaustive list.
- Those are not the minimum qualifications. They should be read as “anyone who meets them is eligible” rather than “no one who fails to meet them is eligible.” The Rehnquist court found that states could not add a felony exclusion for Congressional candidates in the 1990s and that is broadly considered to extend to the Presidency as well. https://www.oyez.org/cases/1994/93-1456
  
  If the constitution doesn’t say it, it’s not typically intended to be assumed true. The constitution doesn’t say that felons can’t be president - so we can’t assume that the states or congress could pass laws forbidding them from being president. It specifically says you can’t be president if you’re 34 or were not born a US citizen. If the writers wanted to exclude felons, they would have said so.
The 35 year old requirement seems bizarrely high to me, I can't see why a smart and capable 32 year old should be prevented from running for the office. A minimum age makes sense, but it's weird that it's far removed from when most states start to legally treat kids as adults (anywhere from 16 to 21).

The current record for number of US presidental votes received while in prison is about 1,000,000. Eugene V. Debs is the record holder, and that election was in 1920. Trump just may beat him this year. There is no law that says you can't be president while in prison.

Question: How the shit does the US legal system claim that “High crimes and Misdemeanors” disqualifies someone from being President, but 34 FELONIES is ok?

Answer: because the people in charge don’t care.

I’m glad he’s been convicted but any idiot can see that this should disqualify him.

I just don't get how someone convicted for ELECTION FRAUD can still be a presidential candidate
- YEAH THAT TOO (I’ve honestly lost count of all the things that should have been disqualifying by now)
It's because the mechanism for adjudicating the high crimes and misdemeanors resides in the legislative branch. They have to adopt articles of impeachment and then convict and remove the President.

If any state crime felonies could automatically disqualify a candidate it would create perverse incentives that should not reside within the power of one state, because of the abuse potential. For example, Texas could drag Biden into court on felony jaywalking charges.

Theres no law saying he cant

Airbud

https://learnconlaw.com/78-the-disqualification-clause

Maybe. It's complicated

Edit: yeah I'm conflating two different things. Interesting listen though

That wasn't what he was just convicted of tho. Is he even on trial for anything related to Jan 6?

Yes. The "why" is that in 1787 it was unthinkable that a felon would be elected President by the Electoral College. The electors wouldn't bother voting for a felon.