U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday declined to dismiss speculation that he would seek a third term and said he hadn\u2019t considered whether he would go to court to contest the U.S. Constitution\u2019s two-term limit for presidents.<\/p>\n
Here is a look at the legal barriers Trump faces.<\/p>\n
What does the constitution say? <\/p>\n
The 22nd Amendment states in part: \u201cNo person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.\u201d<\/p>\n
The amendment was ratified in 1951 after former U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt broke with a self-imposed two-term limit set by presidents since George Washington, the nation\u2019s first.<\/p>\n
Roosevelt, a Democrat who was president during the Great Depression and Second World War, served a third term and then died months into his fourth term in 1945.<\/p>\n
Wayne Unger, a law professor at Quinnipiac University, said the Constitution was clear that presidents are limited to two terms of four years each. He said that while that had not been tested in court, any challenge by Trump would likely be unsuccessful.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would predict the Supreme Court to say nope, it\u2019s clear, two terms of four years each, Donald Trump, you cannot run for a third,\u201d said Unger, who teaches constitutional law.<\/p>\n
Can Trump\u2019s allies change the constitution?<\/p>\n
Yes, but that is highly unlikely in an era of intense political polarization between Democrats and Trump\u2019s Republican Party.<\/p>\n
Any constitutional amendment would require two-thirds support in the U.S. House and Senate or a convention called by two-thirds of the states, and then ratification by 38 of the 50 state legislatures.<\/p>\n
Republicans hold a razor-thin 219-213 majority in the House and a 53-47 majority in the Senate. Republicans control 28 state legislatures.<\/p>\n
Andy Ogles, a Republican U.S. representative from Tennessee and a strong Trump supporter, in January proposed amending the 22nd Amendment to allow people to serve three non-consecutive terms as president.<\/p>\n
Since Trump\u2019s terms beginning in 2017 and in 2025 were non-consecutive, the amendment if passed would allow him to serve a third term starting in 2029.<\/p>\n
Could Trump run as vice-president?<\/p>\n
Trump dismissed on Monday the idea that he could run as U.S. vice-president and then have the candidate for president resign after taking office, which would return Trump to the presidency.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d be allowed to do that,\u201d Trump said in an exchange with reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew to Tokyo from Malaysia.<\/p>\n
But he added: \u201cI think the people wouldn\u2019t like that. It\u2019s too cute.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Trump is barred from running for vice-president because he is not eligible to be president. The 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads, \u201cNo person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jack Queen and Luc Cohen, Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday declined to dismiss speculation that he would seek a third term and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,77,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-245438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-international","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}