The words “tyrant” and “dictator” get thrown around a lot when people talk about President-elect Donald Trump, and there’s a fear that now that he’s regained the presidency, he will not let it go. Now one of his former cabinet members, Steve Bannon, is suggesting that Trump can run for a third term. So can he?
Bannon, a former White House strategist who helped Trump win the election the first time around before he lost favor with the president, has suggested there might be a way around the two-term limit on American Presidents.
Before we get into what he said, let’s take a look at the law. The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1951, and the exact verbiage says: “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.”
This was about ten years after Franklin Roosevelt was elected four times in a row and subsequently died in office.
Trump is only the second president to ever be elected to two non-consecutive terms. The first was Grover Cleveland, who served the office in 1884 and then again in 1892. Bannon’s argument is that the amendment doesn’t apply to Trump, because he is serving non-consecutive terms.
“Since it doesn’t actually say ‘consecutive,’ that ― I don’t know, maybe we do it again in ’28?” Bannon said at the New York Young Republican Club’s annual gala. “Are you guys down for that? Trump ’28! Come on, man!”
Trump has also talked about going for another term. In a meeting with House Republicans, he said, “I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say, ‘He’s so good we’ve got to figure something else out.’”
Let’s not forget that Trump will be 82 years old when he leaves office, and it just seems pretty wild for someone to be elected at that age, considering he’s already the oldest president ever.
It would be incredibly hard for Trump to roll back the 22nd amendment. He would need support from two-thirds of both the House and the Senate, that’s 290 members and 67 members. Then three-fourths of the states would also have to agree. That would be a total of 38 states.
There is another way he might be able to do it, but it’s also far-fetched and difficult. He could hold what’s called a Constitutional Convention, which would need support from 34 out of 50 states. Then, 38 would still have to approve the move.
Considering his age and the amount of effort involved, it’s highly unlikely Trump would even try for a possible third term, and if he did, it’s highly unlikely he would get the support he needed. He would get some support, sure, but probably not enough.
Not even a fully conservative Supreme Court would be able to overturn an amendment. This means that barring something catastrophic like a coup, Trump will be done playing politician in four years.