{"id":408,"date":"2025-02-14T10:55:48","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T10:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/02\/14\/trump-third-term-everything-you-need-to-know-time\/"},"modified":"2025-02-14T10:55:48","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T10:55:48","slug":"trump-third-term-everything-you-need-to-know-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/02\/14\/trump-third-term-everything-you-need-to-know-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Third Term? Everything You Need to Know – TIME"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

D<\/span>onald Trump\u2019s second term has only just begun, but he and his allies are already teasing the prospect of seeking a third. \u201cI suspect I won\u2019t be running again,\u201d\u00a0 Trump told<\/a> his Republican colleagues in the House last November, before caveating: \u201cUnless you say, \u2018He\u2019s so good we\u2019ve got to figure something else out.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The 22nd Amendment has already had its say: \u201cNo 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the Constitution hasn\u2019t proved to be a deterrent for Trump before.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s not the first President to think he should have more than eight years in the White House. Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to a fourth term in 1944 before he died in 1945, prompting Republicans in Congress to seek a constitutional amendment to formalize term limits\u2014which had before been just a norm established by George Washington to step aside after two terms, though several sought more. Ulysses Grant and Theodore Roosevelt both unsuccessfully vied for third terms, and Woodrow Wilson planned to, too, until he died during his second.<\/p>\n

Even after the 22nd Amendment\u2019s ratification in 1951, some Presidents have toyed with the idea of a third term. In 1986, Ronald Reagan half-jokingly raised \u201cgiving it one more try,\u201d according to a TIME report at the time<\/a>, which added: \u201cReagan has come to see the 22nd Amendment as limiting presidential leverage, and believes it should be repealed, effective after he leaves office. \u2018It\u2019s only democratic,\u2019 he said, for citizens to vote for a President as many times as they want. Some future President, that is.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Barack Obama said in 2015<\/a> that he believed he would win if he could run for a third term, but he admitted that he couldn\u2019t because \u201cthe law\u2019s the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump, however, doesn\u2019t seem so sure about that.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what to know about a potential Trump third term and what legal experts have to say about it.<\/p>\n

What Trump has said about a third term<\/h2>\n

One of the earliest times Trump has floated the concept of extending his presidency beyond a second term was in 2020, while campaigning for reelection in Reno, Nev. \u201cWe\u2019re going to win Nevada and we\u2019re going to win four more years in the White House,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cAnd then after that we\u2019ll negotiate. Right? Because we\u2019re probably\u2014based on the way we were treated\u2014we\u2019re probably entitled to another four after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with TIME in April 2024, however, Trump dismissed the idea of challenging the 22nd Amendment. \u201cI\u2019m going to serve one term, I\u2019m gonna do a great job,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cAnd then I\u2019m gonna leave.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But on the trail again in May, at the National Rifle Association\u2019s annual meeting, Trump then said<\/a>: \u201cYou know, FDR 16 years\u2014almost 16 years\u2014he was four terms. I don\u2019t know, are we going to be considered three-term? Or two-term?\u201d<\/p>\n

On Jan. 25, after his second-term inauguration, Trump, at an event in Las Vegas, said<\/a>: \u201cIt will be the greatest honor of my life to serve, not once but twice\u2014or three times or four times.\u201d After cheers from his supporters, Trump smiled and said, \u201cheadlines, for the fake news,\u201d before clarifying, \u201cno, it will be to serve twice.\u201d<\/p>\n

But two days later Trump, speaking to House Republicans in Florida, said<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019ve raised a lot of money for the next race, that I assume I can\u2019t use for myself, but I\u2019m not 100% sure because\u2014I don\u2019t know, I think I\u2019m not allowed to run again. I\u2019m not sure. Am I allowed to run again, Mike?\u201d He referred to House Speaker Mike Johnson, who was in the audience, before saying, \u201cI better not get you involved in that argument.\u201d<\/p>\n

And at the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 6, Trump said<\/a>: \u201cThey say I can\u2019t run again. That\u2019s the expression. \u2018Sir\u2026\u2019 Then somebody said, \u2018I don\u2019t think<\/em> you can.\u2019 Oooh\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

How Trump could bend the Constitution<\/h2>\n

Politico Magazine recently outlined<\/a> four ways Trump could \u201csnatch a third term\u2014despite the 22nd Amendment,\u201d which it summarized as: change the Constitution, sidestep the Constitution, ignore the Constitution, or defy the Constitution.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s Attorney General Pam Bondi acknowledged<\/a> during her confirmation hearing that a third Trump term would require changing the Constitution. And Trump ally Rep. Andy Ogles (R, Tenn.) introduced<\/a> a joint resolution to try to kickstart that process on Jan. 23. The resolution<\/a> seeks to amend the Constitution such that \u201cno person shall be elected to the office of the President more than three times, nor be elected to any additional term after being elected to two consecutive terms.\u201d (Critics have suggested the latter clause was included to prevent Obama from taking advantage of such an amendment to seek a third term.)<\/p>\n

But despite Republicans holding a majority in both the House and Senate, amending the Constitution has a much higher threshold than normal bill passage. It requires two-thirds support from both chambers and then ratification by three-fourths of the states.<\/p>\n

There is \u201cno way\u201d such an amendment would meet those thresholds, says renowned constitutional scholar and dean of UC Berkeley Law Erwin Chemerinsky. Even political opposition<\/a> aside, David Schultz, political science and legal studies professor at Hamline University, tells TIME: \u201cAll of this would have to occur within about a two to three year period at most\u201d in order for Trump to mount a third-term campaign. \u201cJust the logistics and the politics of this renders it\u2014I want to say\u2014nearly impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second pathway, according to Politico, is for Trump to \u201cexploit a little-noticed loophole\u201d in the Constitution: the 22nd Amendment says a President who has served two terms cannot be elected<\/em> to a third one, but it does not say such a President cannot serve<\/em> a third term. Some have read this as to mean that someone like Trump could ascend to the presidency again from the vice presidency.<\/p>\n

Attempting that may run into issues with the 12th Amendment, which says \u201cno person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President.\u201d Bruce Peabody, professor of government and politics at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, N.J., tells TIME: \u201cYou have to read that eligibility language in kind of creative ways that I think depart a bit from the constitutional text. You have to say, \u2018Well, really, what eligibility means is nobody unelectable<\/em> to the office of President is electable<\/em> to the office of Vice President.\u2019 Maybe\u2014but why doesn\u2019t it say that then, right?\u201d And even then Trump would have to be appointed Vice President, like Gerald Ford was, before ascending to the Presidency. But Peabody doesn\u2019t rule out Trump giving it a try nonetheless: \u201cWe\u2019ve already seen some\u2014to put it lightly\u2014unusual legal arguments from the Trump Administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

How Trump could ignore or defy the Constitution<\/h2>\n

Barring a new constitutional amendment, if Trump tries to run or serve again, it would be up to the courts to stop him.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court\u2014with six of nine justices appointed by Republicans, including three by Trump\u2014could rule in his favor, whether interpreting the 22nd Amendment, as some conservatives have proposed<\/a>, to only apply to consecutive terms; acceding to the vice-presidential ascension loophole by brushing away 12th Amendment concerns; or otherwise.<\/p>\n

Laurence Tribe, professor emeritus of constitutional law at Harvard University and one of the country\u2019s leading experts on the Constitution, rules that possibility out. \u201cThe court is extremely pro-Trump, but it\u2019s not insane,\u201d he tells TIME. \u201cThis Court would vote nine to nothing that the 22nd Amendment is what it says and means what it was intended to mean.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Klarman, professor of legal history at Harvard University, is more cautious, given how the Supreme Court ruled on presidential immunity last year<\/a>. \u201cBad arguments can win in the Supreme Court when someone wants them to win badly enough,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the possibility that Trump could simply refuse to leave office in 2029, Constitution and courts be damned. Vice President J.D. Vance has already put forth the idea<\/a> that the executive branch should simply ignore the judicial branch\u2014a concept that runs counter to the republic\u2019s foundational separation of powers. And it\u2019s not like Trump didn\u2019t try to cling onto power<\/a> after losing the 2020 election.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere definitely are scenarios where he doesn\u2019t even need to embrace this kind of legalistic loophole strategy, and he just tries to hold onto power,\u201d says Peabody, \u201cbecause that\u2019s what people who like authority sometimes do.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that path would likely require significant public support, something legal experts like Klarman and Tribe say is unlikely Trump, who would be 82 by 2029, will be able to maintain.<\/p>\n

Tribe thinks there\u2019s little chance of Trump serving more than eight years, by any means: (\u201cLess than the likelihood of an asteroid hitting Singapore tomorrow morning,\u201d he says of the vice-presidential pathway.)<\/p>\n

So why then does Trump bring it up so much? \u201cHolding up the third term possibility is a shiny object to distract public attention,\u201d Tribe says.<\/p>\n

What matters more, suggests Klarman, is what Trump does over the next four years. \u201cHe can easily have gutted democracy in a way that it hardly matters whether he, Don Jr., Elon Musk (yes, there are ways around birthright citizenship as a requirement), or J.D. Vance is formally the President in 2029.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump\u2019s second term has only just begun, but he and his allies are already teasing the prospect of seeking a third. \u201cI suspect I won\u2019t be running again,\u201d\u00a0 Trump told his Republican colleagues in the House last November, before caveating: \u201cUnless you say, \u2018He\u2019s so good we\u2019ve got to figure something else out.\u2019\u201d The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}