Fact Check: Can Trump Run Again in 2028?
Here’s an existential (and electoral) nightmare for Democrats: Could former-and-future President Donald Trump actually get a third-term in office?
Yes, as most people are aware of, the Twenty-Second Amendment definitively caps presidents at two terms.
But most people aren’t nearly as aware that the Twenty-Second Amendment has some unclear verbiage when it comes to potential loopholes (more on this shortly).
The Twenty-Second Amendment reads as follows:
“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.”
The above seems pretty cut and dry.
And for the most part, it is, and it’s unlikely to ever change.
As The Hill noted, efforts to repeal the Twenty-Second Amendment have existed for some time now, but have seldom made any significant progress (and certainly haven’t passed).
So just to be clear: No, Trump cannot run for president again in 2028.
HOWEVER…
In a deeper congressional overview of how the Twenty-Second and Twelfth Amendments can work in conjunction, there is one notable way that Trump could conceivably acquire a third term as president — and it’s not that far-fetched, though a bit macabre.
(The Twelfth Amendment essentially addresses how presidents are elected and confirmed.)
“The Twenty-Second Amendment has yet to be applied,” the government overview noted.
(The Hill does proffer former President Grover Cleveland as an analog for Trump. Cleveland was the last president to serve two non-consecutive terms as president and had the chance to stick around longer due to the Twenty-Second Amendment not existing yet. Cleveland opted not to do that.)
It added: “Commentary suggests, however, that a number of issues could be raised as to the Twenty-Second Amendment’s meaning and application, especially in relation to the Twelfth Amendment. By its terms, the Twenty-Second Amendment bars only the election of two-term Presidents, and this prohibition would not prevent someone who had twice been elected President from succeeding to the office after having been elected or appointed Vice President.”
Yes, as counter-intuitive as it sounds, Trump’s path to a third presidential term could actually be the vice presidency in 2028.
That being said, there is some murkiness in the language of the Twelfth Amendment about how “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President.”
“Is someone prohibited by the Twenty-Second Amendment from being elected to the office of President thereby ‘constitutionally ineligible to the office?'” the government asked without actually clarifying.
But just in case that language is disqualifying for a potential “Vice President Trump,” that’s not the only path he has, though Trump’s other options would require a number of people to perish or be otherwise incapacitated.
Tucked away at the tail end of that overview, the government noted that neither the Twenty-Second nor Twelfth Amendments “addresses the eligibility of a former two-term President to serve as Speaker of the House or as one of the other officers who could serve as President through operation of the Succession Act.”
So to recap: No, Donald Trump cannot seek a third term as president in any conventional sense. He might be able to procure a third term as a successive vice president and likely would be allowed to procure a third term by otherwise being in the presidential line of succession.
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