Trump won't rule out a third term

[Celerity]

Any push by Trump or his allies to get the president into the Oval for a third time would run directly counter to the Constitution’s 22nd Amendment.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/30/trump-wont-rule-out-running-again-in-2028-00259952


"You have to start by saying, I have the highest poll numbers of any Republican for the last 100 years," President Donald Trump said. | Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump on Sunday morning refused to rule out the idea of seeking a constitutionally prohibited third term in office, telling NBC News’ Kristen Welker in a phone call that “there are methods” for doing so.

“You have to start by saying, I have the highest poll numbers of any Republican for the last 100 years,” Trump said. “We’re in the high 70s in many polls, in the real polls, and you see that. And, and you know, we’re very popular. And you know, a lot of people would like me to do that. But, I mean, I basically tell them, we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.”

Any push by Trump or his allies to get the President into the Oval for a third time would run directly counter to the Constitution’s 22nd Amendment, which decrees that “no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice” and makes no exception for presidents like Trump elected to non-consecutive terms. The amendment was enacted in 1951, largely at the behest of Republicans who had been displeased that President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected four times.

“Americans overwhelmingly approve and support President Trump and his America First policies. As the President said, it’s far too early to think about it and he is focused on undoing all the hurt Biden has caused and Making America Great Again,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a statement.

snip


fuck this asshole

[sakabatou]

1. Felon47 pisses on the rules for being president

[Diamond_Dog]

2. What makes him think

He won’t be drooling on a bib in a nursing home by then? If he’s even still alive.

[WarGamer]

3. he's just trolling.

[GreenWave]

19. Wish folks would understand that.

[Scrivener7]

4. His poll numbers suck.

[kskiska]

5. Who didn't see this coming?

[Turbineguy]

6. Every day.

say something stupid.

[misanthrope]

7. "I'll take 'Things that were obvious in 2016' for $200, Alex."

Everything for which we've been tagged as alarmists has come to pass. Sometimes Cassandra is right, especially when it is based on the ample evidence found through history.

[keep_left]

8. Based on what we saw on the golf course yesterday...

...Trump doesn't look like he'll survive his second term, let alone a third.

https://democraticunderground.com/100220189255

Link to tweet

[misanthrope]

10. That looks suspiciously similar to other footage from a few weeks back

Was it recycled then passed off as more current?

[keep_left]

14. Yeah, it's mentioned in that thread.

Trump's gait really does look terrible, though. And since he isn't known for taking care of himself, things will probably get worse.

[SamKnause]

9. Fuck you, you cotton candy headed evil fucking theocratic fascist !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Every word out of your disgusting anus shaped mouth is a lie.

[no_hypocrisy]

11. All talk until he does *something*.

When TSF took his first Oath of Office during Inauguration January 20, 2017, the first thing he did was to file papers to run for President in 2020. No chance of misinterpreting his intentions.

Here, he's teasing, distracting.

[Dave Bowman]

12. "I have the highest poll numbers of any Republican for the last 100 years"

Only in your sick mind, Feeblejuice.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

13. Not going to happen..

It will take years for that to happen.

Nor are there the votes in both Houses of Congress or 3/4 of the states to ratify the US Constitution.

[displacedvermoter]

15. Of all the hateful people in Trump world,

Steven Cheung may be the nastiest and most morally repugnant. Just an awful human being.

[Celerity]

17. Cheung:

Trump calls political enemies ‘vermin,’ echoing dictators Hitler, Mussolini

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/12/trump-rally-vermin-political-opponents/

[BootinUp]

16. a distraction from more important stories perhaps?

[lastlib]

18. WE will rule it out.

He leaves the White House for good on or before 1/20/29. Vertically, or horizontally, it's his choice, but he goes.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

20. MaddowBlog- GOP bill would let Trump (but not Obama) run for a third term

Rep. Andy Ogles’ bill to amend the Constitution and empower Donald Trump to seek a third term will inevitably fail. That doesn’t mean it’s irrelevant.
https://bsky.app/profile/mynewsfeed.link/post/3lgipofeqzc2w

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/new-gop-bill-let-trump-not-obama-run-third-term-rcna189099

About a week after Donald Trump was elected to a second term, the president-elect spoke at a House Republican conference meeting and made a comment that raised a few eyebrows. “I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say, ‘He’s so good, we’ve got to figure something else out,’” Trump said, presumably as some kind of joke.

He might very well have been kidding, though the Republican has made similar comments several times in recent years, and he’s not alone. Last month, Steve Bannon talked up the idea of Trump running again in 2028 — he suggested it might be constitutionally permissible, despite the plain language of the 22nd Amendment — and Fox News host Trey Gowdy, a former Republican member of Congress, had similar comments on the air.

It’s against this backdrop that NBC News reported on the third day of the president’s final term.

Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., introduced a resolution that would amend the Constitution and allow Trump to seek a third term in office. ‘This amendment would allow President Trump to serve three terms, ensuring that we can sustain the bold leadership our nation so desperately needs,’ Ogles said in a statement [Thursday].

Let’s make one thing perfectly clear at the outset: Ogles proposed constitutional amendment will not go anywhere. In every Congress, plenty of lawmakers unveil silly proposals, knowing full well that they stand no chance of success, and this measure from the Tennessee Republican clearly falls into that category.....

Given everything we’re seeing about the state of Republican Party politics in 2025, this race to the bottom is likely to get worse before it gets better.

This proposal has no chance of passing.

[Initech]

21. Stephen Miller needs to be arrested NOW.

Fuck that Nazi POS.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

22. Tamping down the third term hype for Trump

Believe or not, this issue was discussed a while back when there were discussions about Bill Clinton running as vice-president on a Gore-Clinton ticket. The thought was that Gore would resign after the election and President Clinton could serve a third term. This concept was discussed and rejected.

The three ways that trump could run for a third term (i) a constitutional amendment, (ii) trump running as vice president and then have his running mate resign and (iii) trump becoming speaker of the house and then the POTUS and Vice President resigning.

A constitutional amendment is not likely. https://upload.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=3380306 It is unlikely that such an amendment could get through congress much less be ratified by the required number of states.

The third option has so many variables that it is also unlikely. trump would have to be appointed/elected as Speaker and then both the POTUS and the VP resign. This option does not have the 12th Amendment issue but has so many variables that it is unlikely

The 12th Amendment is clear that no one can run as VP if they are not eligible to run as POTUS. I agree with the legal analysis set forth below.

https://bsky.app/profile/derektmuller.bsky.social/post/3llmjzwnvdc2l

Link to tweet

https://electionlawblog.org/?p=149214

As I told the Associated Press:

Derek Muller, a professor of election law at Notre Dame, noted that the 12th Amendment, which was ratified in 1804, says “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.”

Muller said that indicates that if Trump is not eligible to run for president again because of the 22nd Amendment, he is not eligible to run for vice president, either.

“I don’t think there’s any ‘one weird trick’ to getting around presidential term limits,” Muller said.

In addition, pursuing a third term would require extraordinary acquiescence by federal and state officials, not to mention the courts and voters themselves.

He suggested that Trump is talking about a third term for political reasons to “show as much strength as possible.”

Now, there’s no question there is potential constitutional ambiguity here, as Professor Brian Kalt has discussed. But scholars like Professor Michael Dorf a quarter century ago were bolstering the idea of a Gore-Clinton ticket in 2000:

Thus, if Clinton were to be elected Vice President, and ascend to the Presidency based on, for example, Mr. Gore’s resignation, then nothing unconstitutional would have occurred. Clinton would have been elected to the Presidency only twice — though he would serve as President thrice. Under the Twenty-Second Amendment, that is perfectly permissible.

. . . But in seeking the Vice-Presidency — a job, in John Nance Garner’s unforgettable phrase, “not worth a bucket of warm spit” — Clinton would hardly be bidding for dictatorial powers.

Similar claims were made by Professor Brian Gray and elsewhere. But in my earlier scholarship, I found this interpretation weaker than the one advanced by Matthew Franck:

It follows from the 22nd Amendment that Bill Clinton, being “constitutionally ineligible” to be elected president, is ineligible to become president by another route. He is, in short, ineligible to be president, and therefore ineligible to become vice president under the 12th amendment.

I agree. But it’s worth noting that if–and I think it’s still a big if–such a gambit arose, there are tremendous complexities in its implementation. Not the least of which is the fact that after Trump v. Anderson, I believe the Court expressly left open the opportunity for states to review qualifications of presidential (and vice-presidential) candidates outside of the 14th Amendment and exclude candidates on that basis. Vice presidential nominations and ballot access deadlines for them occur in late summer, giving an exceedingly truncated window for review–and, frankly, one that may leave a major party without a vice presidential candidate on the ballot in several states with the approval of the United States Supreme Court. (Setting aside, of course, the will power of someone like J.D. Vance relinquishing the presidency.)

I really enjoy Professor Hasen's election law blog. This article made me smile.

Finally, I doubt that trump will live long enough for these options to be necessary.