President Donald Trump said Sunday that “I’m not joking” about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends in early 2029.
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00:00I think most constitutional scholars would look at the Constitution and say that this president
00:08cannot run for a third term. The longer answer is, I have no doubt that Mr. Trump has attorneys
00:19looking for ways to try to, looking for loopholes in the Constitution to try to get a third term.
00:26The 12th Amendment provides for what happens when a president dies or is otherwise unable to serve.
00:36So what I strongly suspect the mechanism is, is that he would run with Vance as the vice
00:44president on the ticket, and then Vance would probably resign, and he would then step up to
00:56the presidency at that point. Now, the 12th Amendment also says, I believe it's the very
01:03last sentence of it, that someone cannot be a vice president who is unqualified to be a president.
01:15So it would be certainly controversial for President Trump to run as a vice president,
01:23having already served two terms. But the 22nd Amendment essentially gives him two years.
01:33So I suspect what they would try to do is to argue that he could at least be president for two years,
01:41or might otherwise try to ignore the last sentence of the 12th Amendment and say that
01:48it doesn't apply to him in those circumstances. An interesting question is whether a president who
01:55resigns under no compulsion to do so is otherwise unable to serve. And could a resignation serve for
02:07that? Under this scenario, using the 12th Amendment, I don't believe Mr. Vance would be
02:13under such a compulsion to resign. So I think there's another argument to suggest that the
02:1812th Amendment might not even apply. Under the clear language of the 22nd Amendment,
02:26a president can only be elected twice. And of course, President Trump is in his second term.
02:35He was elected in 2016, elected again in 2024. So I think he fits squarely within the limitations of
02:43the 22nd Amendment. So it would take some machinations, some scheming, in order to find
02:52a loophole. And I think that's what Mr. Trump is talking about now, when he's looking to
03:01run for a third term. Most constitutional professors would be hard-pressed to find any way
03:09that it would be constitutional for any president to attempt to subvert the 22nd and the 12th
03:16Amendments in this way. So I think the argument is weak. I think it will be seen as such. And I
03:24don't think that even a fairly friendly Supreme Court would buy an argument like this.