The Choice: The 22nd Amendment: Setting Presidential Term Limits
Of course, Donald Trump is going to try to run for a 3rd term anyway...
Issue #959 The Choice, Friday, November 14, 2025
Every Friday until the end of 2025, we will publish a post about each of the 27 Amendments to the Constitution.
The 22nd Amendment was ratified on February 27, 1951, in response to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s unprecedented four-term presidency, which sparked concerns about the concentration of power in a single individual. Roosevelt’s tenure challenged the unwritten tradition, established by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, of serving only two terms. This departure from tradition prompted lawmakers to formalize what had been a voluntary precedent into a constitutional mandate.
The 22nd Amendment clearly states that no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office 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 more than once. This effectively limits a person to a maximum of ten years as President, assuming they took over for a deceased or incapacitated President midway through a term.
The primary goal of the 22nd Amendment is to protect democracy by preventing any single individual from holding too much power for too long. By setting presidential term limits, the amendment ensures a regular and peaceful transition of power, which is a cornerstone of democratic governance.
Of course, Donald Trump, who never saw a law or Constitutional amendment he couldn’t ignore, has declared that he intends to run for a third term in 2028, despite what the 22nd Amendment says.
His closest allies, like Steve Bannon, also say that Trump will “find a way around” the 22nd Amendment so that he can run.
Questions have been raised about the amendment’s meaning and application, especially in relation to the 12th Amendment, ratified in 1804, which states, “But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.” While the 12th Amendment stipulates that the constitutional qualifications of age, citizenship, and residency apply to the president and vice president, it is unclear whether someone who is ineligible to be elected president due to term limits could be elected vice president. Because of the ambiguity, a two-term former president could be elected vice president and then succeed to the presidency upon the incumbent’s death, resignation, or removal from office, or succeed to the Acting President from another stated office in the presidential line of succession.
It may be that Trump is investigating using this “loophole” to get around running for a third term.
It has been argued that the 22nd and 12th Amendments bar any two-term president from later serving as vice president and from succeeding to the presidency at any point in the presidential line of succession. Others contend that the original intent of the 12th Amendment concerns qualification for service (age, residence, and citizenship), while the 22nd Amendment concerns qualifications for election, and thus a former two-term president is still eligible to serve as vice president. Neither amendment restricts the number of times someone can be elected to the vice presidency and then succeed to the presidency to serve out the balance of the term, although the person could be prohibited from running for election to an additional term.
In January 2025, Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee introduced a joint resolution proposing a constitutional amendment that would allow a president to serve a third term, provided that their first two are non-consecutive. The bill's language was intended to specifically allow incumbent President Donald Trump to serve a third term, as he is the only living president to have served non-consecutive terms. Of course, his resolution does not seem to take into account the very lengthy process of ratifying a Constitutional Amendment.
Our Choice: Now that it seems as if the complete release of the Epstein files may derail Trump, we can’t be sure. VP JD Vance is already measuring the drapes in the White House and Oval Office.
He could resign, but he won’t, because that would show him to be a loser and make him vulnerable to criminal charges he ran for president to avoid.
There are also several actual and reputable doctors who, while watching Trump’s obvious physical and mental declines, feel that he may not be alive in the next few months.
What we must then concentrate on is winning back majorities in both houses of Congress. We know that the Republicans will do everything possible before and after the 2026 midterms to keep themselves in power. We must be ready.
What do YOU think about Trump’s short-term and long-term chances to stay in power? Paid subscribers can comment!
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