Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Andrew Harnik
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics
Niamh Shackleton
Donald Trump has made comments in the past suggesting he's eyeing up a third term in office.
Should Trump run for president once more, it would make him the first person to have done so since Franklin Roosevelt.
This comes down to the fact that it's currently prohibited for a person to run for more than two terms in office, which is outlined in America's 22nd Amendment.
The 22nd Amendment states, as per the National Constitution Center: "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."
Trump has hinted on several occasions that he wants to run for office once more.
Advert
He first suggested it back in 2022, says TIME, during his campaign for reelection before losing to Joe Biden.
"We’re going to win Nevada and we’re going to win four more years in the White House," Trump teased at the time.
"And then after that we’ll negotiate. Right? Because we’re probably—based on the way we were treated—we’re probably entitled to another four after that."
He was quoted by MSNBC telling House Republicans last November after winning the election: "I suspect I won't be running again unless you say he's so good we have got to figure something else out."
More recently, Trump boasted how much money he's raised and suggested that entitled him to run again.
Speaking to House Republicans in Florida last month, the 78-year-old said: "I’ve raised a lot of money for the next race, that I assume I can’t use for myself, but I’m not 100% sure because... I don’t know, I think I’m not allowed to run again. I’m not sure. Am I allowed to run again, Mike [Johnson]?"
While it's currently prohibited for a person to run more than twice, a bombshell proposal put recently forward by US Representative Andy Ogles suggested changes to the 22nd Amendment so Trump could be president for another four years after his current term.
Ogles suggested that amendment be changed so that it reads: "No 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, 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 twice."
The wording for the proposal, should it go through, would allow Trump to run again, but not former presidents like Barack Obama as he ran for two terms consecutively.
Politico reports this proposal passing is an extremely unlikely scenario, with it requiring two-thirds support in both chambers of Congress, or two-thirds of the states to call for a constitutional amendment, and then three-fourths of the states would have to ratify it. US politics is currently too divided for this to happen.
Elsewhere, Politico has pointed out that there's a bit of loophole in the 22nd Amendment because of its wording.
The amendment states that a person cannot be elected to run for a third term; but it doesn't say anything about serving a third term.
With this in mind, it's possible that Trump could work his way around such wording to find himself president again for another four years. For instance, he could run as vice president, have the presidential candidate agree to step down on day one, and he could find himself back in the White House post-2028.
John Fortier, senior research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, has however said that there are laws that prevent this legal loophole from being exploited.
He told Sky News that a president or anyone in the line of succession for president 'must meet the qualifications to become president'.
Trump, having severed two terms already, wouldn't be eligible.