Republican Congressman Moves to Amend Constitution So Donald Trump Can Run for Third Term

Mar. 15, 2025

A Republican lawmaker is proposing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would enableDonald Trumpto run for a third term in the White House.

Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee announced on Thursday, Jan. 23, that he’s introducing a House Joint Resolution to amend the U.S. Constitution and allow a president — in his case, specifically Trump — to be elected for up to three terms.

The22nd Amendmentof the Constitution, which was ratified in 1951 after Franklin D. Roosevelt’s record-setting tenure in office, currently states that no president is allowed to be elected more than twice.

A person also cannot serve more than 10 years total as president, meaning a vice president-turned-president could seek two additional terms if their initial presidency lasted less than two years.

Ogles' proposed amendment reads as follows: ‘‘No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than three times, nor be elected to any additional term after being elected to two consecutive terms, 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 twice.’’

Donald Trump appears in the Oval Office on Jan. 20, 2025.Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty

Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty

In a statement on hiswebsite, the far-right politician — who has previously faced backlash overhis family’s Christmas card photoand aGoFundMe campaign— cited Trump’s “decisive leadership” when he referred to his hopes to “revise the limitations” of the Constitutional amendment, and directly wrote that it would “allow President Trump to serve three terms.”

“President Trump has shown time and time again that his loyalty lies with the American people and our great nation above all else. He is dedicated to restoring the republic and saving our country, and we, as legislators and as states, must do everything in our power to support him,” Ogles wrote.

Trump, who wassworn in on Monday, Jan. 20, to begin his second term in the Oval Office, has previously mentioned a third term in office but has also shut down the idea.

During a Maykeynote speechat the National Rifle Association Leadership Forum, the president asked the crowd if he was “going to be considered three-term or two-term,” before someone in the audience shouted “three.”

“Are we three-term or two-term if we win?” he asked again.

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“Look, it’s two terms. I had two elections,” he said elsewhere in the interview. “I did much better on the second one than I did the first. I got millions more votes… But no, I’m going to serve one term, I’m gonna do a great job.”

Donald Trump attends inauguration ceremonies on Jan. 20, 2025.Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Then, back in November,Trump changed his tune againat the House Republican Conference in Washington, D.C. “I suspect I won’t be running again,” he said before the audience laughed. “Unless you say, ‘He’s so good, we have to just figure it out.’ ”

Since taking office last week, Trump has signed a series of executive orders, includingwithdrawing the U.S.from the World Health Organization, declaring his intent toterminate birthright citizenshipfor the children of undocumented immigrants — which is already being challenged in courts — andpardoning about 1,500 peoplewho were charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

source: people.com