Talking About Unconstitutional Ideas: Is There Any Way that Donald Trump Can Have a Third Term?

President-for-Life Donald J. Trump? I don't think so! (Photo Credit: NBC)

On Quora, British member Steve Moreby asks:

Is there any way that Donald Trump can have a third term?

My reply:

According to the United States Constitution, no.

Amendment XXII (1952)

Section 1.

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. But this article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

Section 2.

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states within seven years from the date of its submission to the states by the Congress.

I don’t know why this question keeps on popping up on Quora. It’s based on a rather flimsy premise, i,e. that President Trump will be re-elected in 2020. It also reflects woeful, even willful, ignorance of basic U.S. constitutional law.

That being said, no. There are no legal mechanisms in place to allow Trump to stay in office for a presumptive third term.

And I’m going to do my best, as a U.S. citizen and registered voter, that he does not win a second one.