Donald Trump reveals he needs to run for a historic ‘fourth time period’ – here is how he may

Donald Trump is currently serving his second term as president and the US Constitution forbids him from standing for a third, yet the orange manbaby has now announced he wants to serve for a fourth term

View 6 Images

Donald Trump has hinted he intends to serve a “fourth term” as US president – despite the constitution limiting leaders to two stints in the White House.

The Orange Manbaby, 79, has previously falsely claimed that a hypothetical “third term” would actually be his “fourth” because “the 2020 election was totally rigged“.

In an all-caps post on his social media platform Truth Social, he said: “Record numbers all over the place! Should I try for a fourth term?”

He has often spoke of standing as a presidential candidate again in the next election and his private company last year started flogging red baseball caps that read “Trump 2028”.

What does the US Constitution say?

The US Constitution – the supreme law in the country – seems to rule out anyone having a third term. On paper, Trump should not be allowed to stand as a presidential candidate in the next election.

The 22nd Amendment states: “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.”

Any change to the constitution would need approval from two-thirds of the Senate and the House of Representatives and approval from three-quarters of the country’s state-level governments.

So how could he do it?

Trump has often spoke of his admiration for strongman, authoritarian leaders around the world, such as Turkey’s Recep Erdogan and even Russia’s Mad Vlad Putin, who have both overstayed their presidential term limits.

Trump could simply amend the constitution to remove the term limits, but he would need a supermajority to achieve the approval needed.

Putin issued amendments to the Russian constitution in 2020 and was permitted two more consecutive terms without regard for his previous tenure, potentially allowing him to remain in office until 2036.

So what else could he do?

Trump’s former chief strategist and convicted fraudster Steve Bannon recently said “there is a plan” for bypassing the 22nd Amendment that would be laid out at an “appropriate time.”

Neither Bannon nor any of Trump’s team have revealed that plan, but one theory is that Trump could be the vice-presidential running-mate to another presidential candidate – JD Vance, for example – in the 2028 election.

And then if Vance were to win, he could immediately resign after being sworn in, paving the way for Trump to take over. The loophole is untested in court. But Trump himself downplayed it, saying: “I think people wouldn’t like that. It’s too cute. It wouldn’t be right.”

He could even appeal to the nation’s highest court to effectively interpret term limits out of the constitution.

According to the London School of Economics, potential presidential overstayers tried this strategy in 15% of evasion attempts and succeeded a remarkable 83% of the time.

What do legal experts say?

Derek Muller, an election law professor at the University of Notre Dame, said 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”.

He told the BBC this means serving two terms in office disqualifies anyone from running as a vice-presidential candidate, in his view. He said: “I don’t think there’s any ‘one weird trick’ to getting around presidential term limits.”

And Jeremy Paul, a constitutional law professor at Boston’s Northeastern University, told CBS New there were “no credible legal arguments” for a third term.

Has anyone served more than two terms?

Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected four times and he died in April 1945, three months into his fourth term. The Great Depression and the Second World War are often cited for his extended presidency.

At that time, the two-term limit on US presidents had not been written into law, it was instead a custom followed since George Washington refused a third term in 1796. But it led to the tradition being codified into law in the 22nd Amendment in 1951.

For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletter by clicking here.