In an exclusive interview with NBC News, President Donald Trump did not rule out the possibility of seeking a third term in the White House. He said there were methods for doing so and clarified that he was “not joking.” And he added, “A lot of people want me to do it.”
The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution is clear.
It states: “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.”
A Trump bid for a third term would, no doubt, set off legal battles in states across the nation.
There are “no credible legal arguments” for a third term. That’s what Jeremy Paul, a constitutional law professor at Boston’s Northeastern University, told CBS News.
Despite that, there are some arguments on the table that “there are methods for doing so.”
Referring to that NBC interview, one of the options was having J.D. Vance lead the GOP ticket in 2028 with Trump as his running mate. Vance would then resign once he is sworn into office — allowing Trump to assume the presidency for a third time.
Derek Muller, an election law professor at the University of Notre Dame, said the Constitution’s 12th Amendment says, “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of president shall be eligible to that of vice-president of the United States.”
Trump ally Steve Bannon frequently argues the Constitution allows Trump to run again because his terms were not consecutive.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi told senators in her confirmation hearing that Trump could not serve a third term “unless they change the Constitution.”
But Bannon, who served as a White House strategist for Trump during his first term, said last month that he, conservative attorney Mike Davis and others are devising strategies for Trump to stay in office, warning that Democrats will try to imprison the president if he relinquishes power.
“We’re working on it — I think we’ll have a couple of alternatives,” Bannon told NewsNation. “We’ll see what the definition of term limit is.”
That begs the question, “Is there room to interpret the definition of term limits?”
A more straightforward possibility that some constitutional scholars have not ruled out is Trump running for a third term as president, regardless of what the 22nd Amendment says.
Gloria Browne-Marshall, a constitutional law professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said in an NPR interview: “If you think about it, the 22nd Amendment assumes that one would follow the Constitution. But if one is not going to follow the Constitution, what difference does it make what’s written there?”
Then you must wonder how the Supreme Court would react.
Does Trump really care about meeting the requirements? Does he care about the constitutional limits of his authority?
There are more than three years until the 2028 election.
In the meantime, there’s a broader question that needs to be examined. Barring a Constitutional amendment, would a test of the Constitution’s presidential term limits further destabilize the U.S. political landscape at a time when the ability of the courts and certainly Congress to serve as checks and balances of the White House is under question?
Praveen Fernandes, vice president of the Constitutional Accountability Center and a constitutional law expert, will join me to explore these issues and more on this week’s Politics & Power.
Watch at 7 p.m. or 9 p.m. on News4JAX+ or catch it on demand anytime on News4JAX+, News4JAX.com or our YouTube channel.
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