President Donald Trump as commander-in-chief through 2037?
Democrats and their legacy media allies are decrying the "many more years of MAGA" rumors which posit there is a loophole in the Constitution that will allow Trump to serve more than two terms.
An NBC News report on Sunday blared: "Trump won’t rule out seeking a third term in the White House, tells NBC News ‘there are methods’ for doing so".
“A lot of people want me to do it,” Trump said in a Sunday-morning phone call with NBC News. “But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration. I’m focused on the current.”
When asked whether he wanted another term, Trump responded: “I like working.”
“I’m not joking,” Trump said, when asked to clarify. “But I’m not — it is far too early to think about it.”
When asked whether he has been presented with plans to allow him to seek a third term, Trump said, “There are methods which you could do it.”
NBC News asked about a possible scenario in which Vice President JD Vance would run for office and then pass the role to Trump. Trump responded: “That’s one” method. But there are others, too.”
The 22nd Amendment limits presidents to two terms.
But there is a "path for Trump to serve a third term - and potentially a fourth until January 2037 when he would be aged 90 - is not only possible, it is simple, thanks to a glaring loophole in the amendment," the Daily Mail noted.
Whether Trump pulls it off "hinges on the interpretation of one word - 'election' - in the 22nd Amendment, and the loyalty" of Vice President JD Vance, the Daily Mail added.
The text of the full 22nd Amendment:
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.The loophole is contained in a 1999 Minnesota Law Review article co-authored by professor Bruce Peabody and titled "The Twice and Future President".
It outlines how the 22nd Amendment has been subject to "widespread misunderstanding," and concludes that the idea any twice-elected president is "constitutionally prohibited" from serving again is "decidedly incorrect."
According to the paper: "We contend that the Twenty-Second Amendment proscribes only the re-election of an already twice-elected President.'
The key phrase in the Amendment is - 'No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice...'
It is argued that means a twice-elected president would not be barred from later re-assuming the office due to the resignation, or death, of another president.
Trump could therefore run for Vice President, with Vance as an openly recognized nominal figure at the top of the ticket.
Once he is sworn in, Vance could then resign, allowing his Vice President - Trump - to step into the office.
The same procedure could be used in multiple elections.
To win a fourth term Trump would simply have to resign the presidency before the 2032 election and become the running mate of a nominal presidential candidate, be that Vance or someone else.
Shortly after the 22nd Amendment was ratified President Dwight Eisenhower said it did not seem "wholly wise," the report noted.
Eisenhower said the electorate "ought to be able to choose for its President anybody that it wants, regardless of the number of terms he has served."
He even raised the possibility of running as Vice President in 1960, and then re-assuming office for a third time himself.
"The only thing I know about the presidency the next time is this: I can't run," he said. "But someone has raised the question that were I invited, could I constitutionally run for Vice President?"
Eisenhower later said the Justice Department had looked into it and concluded it would be "absolutely legal for me to do so," though he chose not to.
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