US President Trump has mused more than once that he might like to prolong his sit at the White House. But does he move for re-election in 2028 and get a second name? The basic response: No, the US law does not permit it. By the end of his second term, Trump, then 78, would be the oldest president in history. Here’s why the problem has surfaced and what the rules says.
Trump has made several comments on second term
President Trump told NBC News on Sunday that he was” not joking” about the possibility of seeking a third presidential term, suggesting in an interview with” Meet the Press” that there were “methods” to circumvent the two-term limit laid out in the constitution. It was the first day that Trump had indicated he was really considering the idea.
At the start of his second month again in business, Trump floated the idea that the presidential term restriction may be negotiable while speaking to House Republicans during their monthly retreat in Florida. On Feb 6, at a meal at a Washington hotel, Trump repeatedly hinted at the idea that his time in office may extend beyond two four-year words. While talking to House Republicans in Nov about clinching the White House and both chambers of Congress, Trump casually suggested that they could help improve his administration. And during his first term in office, Trump suggested to his followers at a Sept 2020 rally in Nevada that term limits were no set in stone.
Presidential term limits are enshrined in constitution
The 22nd amendment to the constitution, which was ratified in 1951, says that” no man may be elected to the office of the president more than double”. Kimberly Wehle, who teaches legal law at the University of Baltimore and wrote a book titled” How to Learn the Constitution- and Why”, said that the measure left no confusion and was intended to place a check on the leader.
You Trump get around the 22nd act?
Amending the constitution to get around the two-term control would be a very large order.
Two-thirds legislatures in both the House and Senate are required merely to introduce an act, far more than the slim majorities Republicans hold in both chambers then, or two-thirds of the states have to call for a legal agreement. Ratifying an act is even more difficult: Three-fourths of all condition legislature- or of those state-level democratic conventions- may approve it.
Three days after Trump was sworn in to a second word, one of his friends in the House, Representative Andy Ogles, a Republican of Tennessee, introduced a long-shot solution to amend the constitution to provide him with a route to a fourth term.
The part of the quality applying to Trump is worded this method:” No person shall be elected to the office of the president more than three times, nor been elected to any further word after being elected to two consecutive terms”. Ogles argued that Trump needed more time to accomplish his agenda.
Is Trump really not joking?
Representative Dan Goldman, Democrat of New York, hasn’t treated Trump’s previous quips about staying in office as a laughing matter. Soon after Trump remarked in Nov that House Republicans could help pave his way to a third term, Goldman introduced a resolution to reaffirm that the 22nd amendment applies to presidents who serve non-consecutive terms. He reintroduced the measure in Feb in response to the move by Ogles.
Has a president ever served more than two terms?
Yes. Franklin D Roosevelt was elected to four terms, serving from 1933 to 1945, during the Great Depression and WWII. He died while in office. There was no 22nd amendment then, but Roosevelt’s grip on power became a driving force for setting term limits for presidents. nyt
