By Trump's flawed logic, even Obama can seek a ‘third term’: Will 12th amendment stop it?
ByHT News Desk
Mar 31, 2025 05:48 AM IST
Donald Trump said he is considering constitutional ‘loopholes’ to run for a third term
Technically, President Donald Trump can't get a third term in the White House. The 78-year-old on Sunday hinted at his strategy to exploit a ‘loophole’ in the US Constitution and use his VP JD Vance to fulfill his dream. Trump told NBC's Kristen Welker he is ‘not joking’.
President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama at Jimmy Carter's funeral service(Getty Images via AFP)
President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama at Jimmy Carter's funeral service(Getty Images via AFP)
As soon as Trump made the statement, several social media users reminded the president that if he manages to get himself in the 2028 race, so will Barack Obama. The former president is yet to make any public statement about running again.
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“Trump should really stop talking about running for a third term unless he wants to get absolutely humiliated by President Obama in a presidential race,” Irish-American influencer Harry Sisson wrote on X, platform formerly known as Twitter.
“Trump wants to ignore the 22nd amendment and run for a third term? Okay. Barack Obama in 2028. Let’s go,” another person added.
“People tweeting Trump 2028 are genuinely disgusting people. We get you all don’t know or care about the 22nd Amendment (you fools only believe in the 2nd) but get a GRIP. If Trump can run for a third term so can Obama. Let him be President again then,” a third one tweeted.
What did Trump say about his ‘third term’ plans?
Donald Trump told NBC's Welker that ‘a lot of people’ want him to run for president again. The 78-year-old was first elected in 2016 but lost to Joe Biden in 2020. In the 2024 race, the Republican managed to beat former VP Kamala Harris by a massive margin.
On Sunday, he claimed that ‘there are methods which you could do it’. He spoke about having Vice President JD Vance run for president with him as the 40-year-old's running mate. According to Trump, Vance would resign allowing him to regain the top post.
“But there are others too,” Trump said.
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What is the ‘loophole’ Trump is talking about?
The US Constitution's 22nd amendment bans a person from being ‘elected’ to more than two terms. However, it doesn't mention anything about becoming president on an additional occasion through succession.
However, an election law professor at Notre Dame, Derek Muller, told the Associated Press that the constitution’s 12th amendment says ‘no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of president shall be eligible to that of vice-president of the United States’.
Muller added that, as per the amendment, if Trump is not eligible to run for president again, he is not eligible to run for vice presidency either.
“I don’t think there’s any ‘one weird trick’ to getting around presidential term limits,” the election law professor further added.
Barack Obama for a third term?
This is not the first time Obama's third-term option has surfaced. Earlier this year, Tennessee Rep Andy Ogles introduced a resolution that will make changes to the 22nd Amendment, allowing Trump to run again. But it had a tweak.
Ogles' resolution said only presidents who served non-consecutive terms would be allowed to run for a third one. Obama gets ruled out here, as he won both the 2008 and 2012 elections.
Donald Trump
Barack Obama
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