Perspectives: Many ‘methods’ for Trump seeking third term

Listen to this article

It’s been nearly five months since President Donald Trump began his second term, but there’s been plenty of talk about him seeking a third one.

The clearest signal was sent a couple of months ago when the president told a television interviewer that “there are methods that you could do it,” referring to serving a third term after this one ends in January 2029, notwithstanding the proscription in the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution limiting presidents to two terms of office. He doubled down a month ago telling that same interviewer that “there are ways of doing it,” notwithstanding the ostensible constitutional bar.

The president, who usually follows up on what he says publicly, except when he doesn’t, went on to state that he was “not joking.”

The president’s remarks advance murmurs stemming from various MAGA quarters, led by his former campaign manager Steve Bannon, that he should seek a third term three years from now regardless of the two-term constitutional barrier. A number of MAGA Republicans in the House of Representatives have jumped on the bandwagon, with legislation introduced to permit it to occur, while other actions of those who adore him in that body have included measures to place his visage in Mount Rushmore and to recognize officially his birthday as a national holiday, coming up on his 79th this Saturday, June 14, which already is designated as Flag Day. If enacted, the measure would take its place in the annals of legal lore concerning birthdays.

See Perspectives, “Birthday recalls Minnesota case law battles” in the May 5, 2025, edition of Minnesota Lawyer.

Presidential parade

To celebrate his 79th, the president is rolling out this Saturday a 6,000-member military parade in the nation’s capital, along with other features, in recognition of the Army’s 250th anniversary. The estimated $45 million event would be a precursor to a much bigger bash he will oversee in July next year to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

These initiatives are being undertaken in the face of recent polling showing his approval rating well under water, as the pollsters are wont to say, and another reflecting that nearly 73% of the public, including a slight majority of Republicans, don’t want him to seek a third term.

But despite current polling, which can change markedly as new developments occur, one can visualize the 45th/47th president trying to stay in power after his second term expires. Indeed, he been teasing about that prospect at friendly forums for more than a year. But he’s also stated the contrary, telling that interviewer on “Meet the Press” two months ago month that seeking a third term “is not something I’m looking to do,” despite fundraising and other promotional efforts like red MAGA hats stating “TRUMP IN 2028” and other merchandise already on sale to aid him in doing just that. That leaves uncertainty regarding his intention, along with likely vacillation as time passes. Then, he told military service members last month during his visit to Qatar to finalize that “gift” of the $400 million airplane that he will “have to think” about seeking another term.

Even if he doesn’t really plan to activate any of those “methods” to run again, as the Shakespearean character Polonius says of his friend Hamlet in the namesake’s play: “Though this be madness, yet there is method in it.” One reason he may be bringing this up now is to remind his MAGA base that he is not a lame duck and keep in line any Republican members of Congress who might be inclined to stray.

Authoritarians, as sone describe the president, don’t go away lightly. Italy’s Benito Mussolini and Germany’s Adolf Hitler, two templates for authoritarianism, did not voluntarily step aside; it took a global war, initiated by them, to bring them down. Current examples abound: Hungary’s Viktor Orban, a welcomed guest at Mar-a-Lago twice last year, is in his third tyrannical term, and Vladimir Putin is in his fifth, not to mention the Kim Jong Un family business in North Korea, and various Middle Eastern potentates, among others.

“I’ve had more people say please run again.”
President Donald Trump, March 31, 2025

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Throughout history, people with few political or economic resources and little bargaining power, have often looked to authoritarian ruthlessness, people to stand up for them.”
Author Stephen Coortz, (1944 – __)

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“We are at least so profoundly anachronistic… and so cynical that the only Utopia we can believe in is authoritarianism.”
Literary critic Lionel Trilling (1905-1975)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Authoritarian political leaders have a vested interest in promoting fear, a sense of imminence of takeover by aliens and real diseases are useful material.”
Writer Susan Sontag (1933 – 2004)

Overcoming obstacles

But what about the 22nd Amendment, which expressly, in two separate portions, bars an individual from being “elected” president for more than two terms?

It’s a provision that parallels many state constitutional and statutory term limitations of various types in 37 states, although not here in Minnesota, restricting governors from extending their tenures beyond a pair of four-year terms or, in one state, Virginia, to a single four-year term.

But that obstacle might be overcome, as the president mentioned, by several “methods.”

The federal restriction could be repealed by a new amendment, although it seems unlikely that the requisite two-thirds of votes could be mustered in each chamber of Congress and then ratification by the necessary 38 state legislatures.

Plan B would involve the president and his minions interpreting that bar as applicable only to consecutive terms, not split terms like Grover Cleveland and Trump, despite the explicit wording of the amendment.

The argument could be based on the historic context of the provision, which was ratified in 1951 in response to the four consecutive terms that Franklin Roosevelt was elected to, although he died less than three months into his final one.

If the matter comes before the Supreme Court, the Trump-friendly conservative core could side with that contention.

But even without that strained argument, the terminology is not foolproof. While it expressly, in two clauses, bars a person from being “elected” more than twice, it does not proscribe one from “serving“ multiple terms such as by ascending to the presidency from the vice president position if the top spot becomes vacant.

Surrogate successor

A plan could be devised three years from now to have a GOP successor for the presidency, perhaps Vice President JD Vance, head a ticket serving as a surrogate with the outgoing President Trump as vice president, and if they win, the placeholder president can step aside and the newly elected vice president return to the Oval Office without transgressing the “elected” more-than-twice proscription.

That position could appeal to the Supreme Court whose conservative majority professes to decide cases based on “textualism,” the explicit wording of a measure, except when it’s convenient for the ultra-conservative majority to disregard that principle. E.g., Neil Gorsuch, “A Republic, If You can Keep It (2019) (extolling “textualism”). Or, as Humpty Dumpty, the amusing rotund literary character proclaimed: “Words mean what I say they mean, nothing more and nothing less.” Lewis Carroll, “Alice in Wonderland” (1905). Applying those standards could create a path for this “method” of a third term for the president.

But there’s a problem there, too, since the murky language of the 12th Amendment seems to suggest that a vice president must be eligible to be president. However, a Trump-friendly Supreme Court, like the current conservative super-majority, could reconcile the two provisions in a way favorable to that scenario of Trump as vice president rising to the vacated presidency.

If that won’t work, there’s a third alternative: have a compliant Vice President Vance do what his GOP predecessor Mike Pence declined, despite chants from the insurrection mob to “hang” him on Jan. 6, 2021: refuse to certify the election of someone else, turning the matter over to a pro-Trump House of Representatives to allow him to hang around for four more years because the House votes by states as a unit, and Republican-majority state delegations predominate in that chamber.

That’s a gimme since the vice president already has said he would do so, which would inevitably lead to a Republican ticket victory.

If none of these works, as an outgoing second-termer, the president could declare martial law, as some like telegenic Minnesota transplanted-Texan pillow-maker Mike Lindell, a possible 2026 Minnesota gubernatorial candidate, urged him to do in early 2021: call out the troops and keep himself in power via a coup.

There would undoubtedly be legal challenges to his candidacy, as there were in 2024 here in Minnesota and three other states — Colorado, Michigan, and Maine — on grounds that he was disqualified under the “insurrection” clause of the 14th Amendment due to his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

But he survived them as the Minnesota Supreme Court declined in Growe v. Simon, 997 N. W. 2d 81 (Minn. 2024) to rule on the issue while its federal counterpart did, unanimously reversing a judicial decision in Colorado bouncing him from the ballot in that state in Trump v. Anderson, 601 U. S. 100 (2024), one of his crucial victories before that tribunal in the run-up to his reelection last year. See also Trump v. United States, 603 U. S. 193 (2024) (presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for “core” official duties).

If contested again, a hospitable Supreme Court could find a “method” to maintain his eligibility to serve consistent with the 22nd Amendment proscription against being “elected,” again.

If the president can get and remain on the ballot and withstand legal challenges all the way up to the friendly Supreme Court, as he has in the past, he stands a decent chance of being returned to the White House for a third term, aided by a plethora of voter suppression tactics now in progress, unlimited financial resources, and despite the currently polling that notoriously underestimates his appeal, especially when pitted against an actual Democratic opponent with his or her own flaws.

Doing dynasty

Then, there’s always the prospect of doing a dynastic arrangement, setting up his family members to stay put in the White House, like son Donald Jr.; or oldest son, Eric; or Eric’s wife, Lara, who already has a leg up as second-in-charge at the Republican National Committee. There’s even youngest son Baron, who’ll be eligible when he reaches age 35 in 2044.

Sounds far-fetched? Not any more so that if someone had forecast years ago that a man who never held political office, twice divorced, the loser of two multimillion-dollar civil sexual assault and business fraud cases, convicted of 34 felonies, orchestrated an attempted insurrection, and the rest of the well-known baggage would be elected to the nation’s highest office twice and probably would have been re-elected four years ago had COVID not intruded.

In any event, like the fictional “Man Who Came to Dinner,” President Trump may not depart the White House gracefully and voluntarily unless replaced by a loyalist — or leave at all — if it’s up to him, and he might not even have to incite a riot to do so.

And he’ll only be 82 years old then.

RELATED: More Perspectives columns

PERSPECTIVE POINTERS

Some longest serving World Leaders

Hassanal Bolkiah: Brunei, 58 years

Paul Biya: Cameroon, 50 years

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo: Equitorial Guinea, 46 years

Yoweri Museveni: Uganda, 38 years

Ali Khamenai: Iran, 33 years

Marshall H. Tanick is an attorney with the Twin Cities law firm of Meyer Njus Tanick Linder & Robbins, PA.