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When Kurt Gödel, one of the greatest mathematicians and logicians of the 20th century, left Austria during a time of political turmoil, he found refuge in the United States alongside Albert Einstein at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study. The two became close friends, often taking long walks discussing abstract theories that would leave most of us dizzy.

But Gödel’s most legendary moment of logic was not in a paper—it was during his U.S. citizenship interview.

Before his interview, Gödel confided in Einstein and economist Oskar Morgenstern that he had discovered a logical loophole in the U.S. Constitution—a theoretical path by which a dictatorship could legally arise in America.

During the interview, the judge casually asked whether a dictatorship could ever happen here, as it had elsewhere in the world.

Gödel, being the meticulous logician he was, began to explain his unsettling discovery. Sensing imminent disaster, Einstein and Morgenstern quickly intervened, steering the conversation back to safer ground. Gödel ultimately became a U.S. citizen without issue.

The details of Gödel’s discovery remain unclear, but could it reflect the possibility of gradual democratic erosion—a concern echoed decades later by political scientists like Bruce Bueno de Mesquita in The Dictator’s Handbook?

Sadly, we can only hope that one of the greatest mathematicians made a mistake in his assessment. After all, even Fermat probably slipped when he claimed to have a proof too large for the margin…