Laurence Tribe Sounds Alarm On How Donald Trump Could Actually Serve Again

On Apr 1, 2025

Harvard constitutional law scholar Laurence Tribe issued a stark warning Monday, cautioning why he believes that dismissing the possibility of a third term for President Donald Trump is a mistake.

“Anyone discounting a 3d Trump term per the 22d am + the 12th am is thinking magically,” Tribe wrote on X (formerly Twitter), referencing the 22nd and 12th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

March 31, 2025

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Anyone discounting a 3d Trump term per the 22d am + the 12th am is thinking magically: The 22d dsn’t bar *serving* a 3d term, only being *elected* 3 times. The 12th dsn’t bar running for VP unless “ineligible” to serve as Pres, but Trump isn’t ineligible. QED!

— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) March 31, 2025

The 22nd Amendment states that “no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.” It also restricts someone from being elected again if they’ve already served more than two years of another president’s term.

However, Tribe pointed out the amendment only prohibits being elected to a third term and does not explicitly ban serving one.

The 12th Amendment, meanwhile, says that “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.”

Tribe noted this would only bar someone from running for vice president if they were ineligible to run for president.

“Trump isn’t ineligible,” noted Tribe, who this weekend signed on to a letter to students at Harvard Law School, where he is a professor, which warned that the “rule of law” is under serious threat amid Trump’s second term.

“QED!” he added, using the Latin abbreviation for “quod erat demonstrandum,” indicating his point was proven.

Other law experts, however, disagree.

Northeastern University constitutional law professor Jeremy Paul said “there are no credible legal arguments for him [Trump] to run for a third term.”

And Notre Dame professor Derek Muller argued there isn’t “any ‘one weird trick’ to getting around presidential term limits” and suggested that Trump’s rhetoric is, as a “lame-duck president,” just intended to “show as much strength as possible.”

Trump, for his part, has repeatedly teased the idea of a third term.

In an interview Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the president told anchor Kristen Welker that he was “not joking” about the idea and suggested “there are methods which you could do it.”

One such way, Trump acknowledged, could involve a scenario where Vice President JD Vance tops the ticket, wins the election, and then transfers power to Trump.

“But there are others too,” Trump said, though he declined to elaborate.