Republicans Seek 3rd Trump Term - Is It Possible?
By: Desmond Price
Why have 2 terms, when you could have 3?
That seems to be the question on the mind of Donald Trump this week. After spending years alluding to the fact that he might want to stay in office longer than the two terms allowed by the 22nd amendment of the constitution, we now have a member of the House that is trying to make it a reality.
Today, Republican House member Andy Ogles, introduced a bill to allow Trump to serve a 3rd Presidential term.
Now the real question is - should we be worried?
Well…
That’s to be determined, but before we get into my feelings on that particular question, let’s dive into the details about this story first.
What does the 22nd amendment say & how does it pertain to this conversation?
Amendment 22 – “Term Limits for the Presidency”
Amendment Twenty-two to the Constitution was ratified on February 27, 1951. It establishes term limits on those elected president, and outlines an accompanying series of stipulations regarding the eligibility of succession for unfinished presidential terms. The official text is written as such:
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 President more than once.
Source: reaganlibrary.gov
Proposed in 1947 and ratified in 1951, the 22nd Amendment was authored to prevent a repeat of President Franklin Roosevelt's unprecedented election to four terms in office. To this day, Roosevelt is the only president ever to have been elected to more than two terms.
While I’m sure Donald Trump would love nothing more than to stay in power for the remainder of his life, getting around those pesky constitutional amendments are a bit tricky.
What it takes to amend the United States Constitution
The proposal must receive a 2/3 vote in the House of Representatives. In this particular case, that is 290 votes in the House. More importantly, Republicans would need 75 Democrats in the House to go along with this.
The proposal must receive a 2/3 vote in the Senate. In this particular case, that would be 67 votes in the Senate. More importantly, Republicans would need 14 Democrats in the Senate to go along with this.
Then you need 3/4 of all state legislatures to approve the measures. Which would be 38 out of the 50 states. Needless to say, that would once again require some Democrat controlled state legislatures to approve the measure
The point I’m trying to illustrate with this particular information is, it would be impossible to amend the constitution without a true bipartisan effort.
Side note
This is why I can never take the conversations seriously surrounding “the Democrats wanna take our guns!”
People do not understand just how difficult it is to amend the constitution.
Is there anyway to get around the 22nd amendment, allowing Trump a 3rd term?
Let’s talk about it…
