President-elect Donald Trump excels at taking a bad idea and making it worse. His inhumane ideas on how to stem the flow of immigrants are just one example. But now he’s focusing on another one: Could he possibly serve a third term as president?
This, of course, would be in direct violation of the U.S. Constitution, as Raw Story tells us. MSNBC host Jonathan Lemire tweeted this good news (please note this is sarcasm) earlier Wednesday, noting that during a meeting with the House Republican Conference, Trump said his second term in the White House might turn into a third term.
Trump says to House Republicans at GOP conference meeting:
“I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say, “He’s so good we’ve got to figure something else out.’”
— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) November 13, 2024
I’m sure that comment resulted in titters from the GOP peanut gallery but this really does contradict the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment prohibits anyone who has served two terms from running for a third time.
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The 22nd Amendment is clear about imposing term limits on U.S. presidents, and that began, of course, with our very first president, George Washington, who said it was improper for a president to serve more than two four-year terms. He also suggested that others who serve after him should follow suit.
While the majority of presidents who followed observed Washington’s suggestion, beloved President Franklin D. Roosevelt broke the two-term tradition, serving two more terms in office in 1940 and 1944 but sadly died in office in 1945 just months after he was elected to a fourth term. He was widely popular, especially since he guided the nation through the Great Depression and World War II. He succeeded in arguing that the country needed stable leadership as the war raged on, but after his passing Congress established the 22nd Amendment to prevent future presidents from serving more than two four-year terms in 1947.
Trump faces an uphill battle if he decides to run for a third time (ugh). He would need to repeal the 22nd Amendment, and that means both two-thirds of the House and Senate and two-thirds of state legislatures would have to go along with this. There’s only been one time in the nation’s history where an Amendment has been successfully repealed — the 18th Amendment, which established the prohibition of alcohol. The amendment was repealed with the ratification of the 21st Amendment in 1933.
So it doesn’t seem likely that the 22nd Amendment will be successful, and likely won’t give the 78-year-old Trump the chance to run for a third time. The 27th Amendment is the most recent one, and it took more than 200 years to ratify it after it was first proposed in 1790. This amendment concerned pay increases for members of Congress.
It’s unlikely that an anti-22nd Amendment repeal effort would succeed, particularly with enough time to grant the 78-year-old Trump the ability to run for a third time. The most recent 27th Amendment took 202 years to ratify after it was first proposed in 1790, and it surrounded pay increases for members of Congress.
Despite all this, there are still some ridiculous Trump supporters who have promoted the repeal of the 22nd Amendment. This includes writer Peter Tonguette of the American Conservative, which is one of more than 100 advisory groups that support Project 2025. He recently suggested that Trump should be allowed to run for a third term. He promoted this as a pro-democracy initiative.
“If, by 2028, voters feel Trump has done a poor job, they can pick another candidate; but if they feel he has delivered on his promises, why should they be denied the freedom to choose him once more?” Tonguette wrote. “As with Prohibition, it is simply a matter of finding the will to get rid of a bad idea that needlessly limits Americans’ freedom.”
Well, getting rid of this “bad idea” will be a really bad idea. I don’t know everything but I don’t remember any promises Trump has delivered on. He was unable to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with something better, for one thing. I don’t think Trump will be able to replace it this time around either. He promised to “build the wall” and that fortunately failed. And if anything, he’s proposing things that will greatly limit “Americans freedom.”
This whole situation would be considered a comedy if it weren’t a nightmare. That’s what we’re stuck with right now.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery.
