President Trump has said he is “not joking” about running for president for a third term.
When asked in an interview with NBC about being allowed to run for a third term, Trump said, “There are methods which you could do it.”
“I’m not joking… a lot of people want me to do it,” he added. “But, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.”
Trump has also argued that his poll numbers indicate Americans want him reelected. However, according to USA Today, his second-term approval ratings are some of the worst in American history.
Along with Trump, many of his supporters also believe there are ways to reelect him. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, supporters claim that the 22nd Amendment does not mention “succession” and only expressly prohibits someone from being “elected” to serve more than two terms as president.
CNN’s senior legal analyst, Elie Honig, spoke about other loopholes the Trump Administration might take to secure him a third term in office.
“Maybe what Donald Trump or any two-term president can do is run as vice president with, let’s say, JD Vance,” said Honig. “If they win, JD Vance resigns, Donald Trump becomes president.”
However, with all this said, is this even possible?
The U.S. Constitution’s 22nd Amendment allows presidents to run for only two elected terms.
“No person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice, and no person who has held the office of president, or acted as president, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected president shall be elected to the office of the president more than once.”
The U.S. Constitution’s 22nd Amendment
This was codified into law in 1951 after Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected four times. During his presidency, it was not a law but a custom to serve twice after Washington rejected a third term.Â
It would be challenging to change the Constitution to remove the two-term restriction; either two-thirds of the states would need to agree to call a constitutional convention to propose changes, or Congress would need to vote in favor of the Amendment. Three-quarters of the states would then need to ratify any option.
Many experts believe the odds of a third term are very slim. Jeremy Paul, a constitutional law professor at Boston’s Northeastern University, said, “There are no credible legal arguments for him to run for a third term.”
Derek Muller, an election law professor at the University of Notre Dame, said in an interview, ​​”I don’t think there’s any ‘one weird trick’ to getting around presidential term limits.”