Introduction
The question on many minds today is: Can Trump serve a third term? With Donald Trump continuing to dominate headlines and political discussions, many Americans are curious about the legal possibilities of him returning to the White House beyond the traditional two-term limit. In this blog, we will explore the U.S. Constitution, historical precedents, and current political debates to understand whether a third Trump term is legally feasible or simply a topic of speculation. Let’s dive into the facts and separate reality from rumor.
Context
- US President Donald Trump on Sunday (6th April) said that he is “ not joking” about serving a third term.
- Although he has repeatedly hinted at this over the past few months, this is the clearest indication yet that Trump is looking to breach the two-term limit for American Presidents that has been enshrined in the US Constitution for almost seven-and-a-half decades.
Contents
- 1.Constitutional Limit
- 2.Why was this Constitutional Limit Imposed?
- 3.Potential routes to circumvent limits imposed by Constitutional Amendment
- 3.1. Amending the Constitution
- 3.2. Trump’s own suggestion to use a potential loophole via the office of vice-president.
- 3.3. Through Succession
- 4.India’s own status
Constitutional Limit
- The 22nd Amendment of the US Constitution states: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice”.
- It was brought in response to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s unprecedented ‘four-term’ Presidency (1933–1945), which broke the ‘two term’ unwritten precedent set by the nation’s first President, George Washington, who voluntarily declined a third term in 1796.
- If a Vice President were to become President in the middle of her predecessor’s term, she can still serve two complete terms as President, provided she enters office with less than half of her predecessor’s term remaining.
- The closest this came to happening was in 1968, when incumbent Lyndon B Johnson dropped out of the presidential race.
- Johnson served the last 14 months of John F Kennedy’s term following his assassination in 1963, before serving his own full term from 1965 to 1969.
Why was this Constitutional Limit imposed?
- The 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951, was brought in after President Franklin D Roosevelt (FDR) won four consecutive presidential elections in 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944. (He died in 1945, just months into his fourth term).
- There were concerns surrounding the President “entrenching power in a kinglike manner,”
Potential routes to circumvent limits imposed by Constitutional Amendment
- Amending the Constitution
- Trump’s own suggestion to use a potential loophole via the office of vice-president.
- Through Succession
Amending the Constitution
This is the most obvious way
a). A constitutional amendment may be proposed by the Congress with a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
- The Republicans currently hold 53 of 100 seats in the Senate, and 218 of 435 seats in the House — well short of the 67 and 290 votes needed for passing a constitutional amendment in the Senate and the House, respectively.
b). An amendment can also be proposed by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the State legislatures (34/50), although this route has never been taken for the 27 amendments passed till date and is politically even more unlikely.
Note: Lastly, a proposed amendment becomes part of the Constitution only after it is ratified by three-fourths of the States, that is, 38 of 50 states. In the current political climate in the US, there is next to no chance that Trump will be able to push through with a constitutional amendment.
Trump’s own suggestion to use a potential loophole via the office of vice-president.
- This would require Vance to win the 2028 presidential election, with Trump as his running mate.
- Vance would subsequently have to resign as President.
- And since the Vice President is first in the presidential line of succession in the US, Trump would then be sworn in as the commander-in-chief.
Note: Constitutional law experts say that this is not the loophole that Trump believes it is.
Constitutional law experts opinion on this loophole
- Professor Derek Muller of University of Notre Dame argued that according to the 12th Amendment, which was ratified in 1804, “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.”
- The 22nd amendment makes Trump ineligible to run for president in 2028, and the 12th amendment extends this ineligibility to him being Vice President.
- Getting around this would again require a constitutional amendment, which will be next to impossible to pass.
Through Succession
- While the VP route is blocked, another theoretical path exists through ‘succession.
- The 22nd Amendment prohibits a person from being “elected” to the Presidency more than twice but does not bar “serving” beyond two terms.
- In other words, a twice-elected President could ascend to the Oval Office via the line of succession, such as by becoming Speaker of the House, who is elected by members of the House and need not himself be a member of Congress, if the President and VP become unavailable.
India’s own status
- Unlike the U.S. Presidential framework, India’s Parliamentary system imposes no term limits on its Prime Minister, as tenure depends on retaining the Lok Sabha’s confidence (Article 75(3)).
- This design ensures ‘voter sovereignty’, ‘democratic flexibility’, and ‘parliamentary accountability’, allowing leaders who sustain public trust to serve extended periods.
Conclusion
While Donald Trump remains a powerful figure in American politics, the U.S. Constitution clearly limits any president to two elected terms. So, Trump cannot serve a third term unless a major constitutional change occurs — which is highly unlikely.
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