Trump says he is ‘joking’ about the possibility of looking for the 3rd term. The constitution forbids it, said the scholars

President Donald Trump often pondered, even joking, about finding a third term, but during the weekend he made the strongest and most serious comments but on a step by the constitutional scholars ABC News spoke with Call almost impossible.

“I’m not kidding,” he told NBC News “Meet the Press” Christian moderator Welker at A telephone interview On Sunday, before adding it “too early to think about it.”

“There is a method you can do,” Trump said, including a scenario where JD Vance Vice President ran at the top of 2028 tickets with Trump as his partner, only for Trump to take over the Oval office after the election.

Legal experts and elections tell ABC News whatever efforts to win more than four years because the President will be a violation of the constitution that has never happened before.

“Trump may not want to rule out the third term but the 222 constitutional amendment,” said David Schultz, a professor at Hamline University and a constitutional law expert.

Amendment stated, part: “No one will be chosen for the President’s office more than twice.”

It was ratified in 1951, years after President Franklin D. Roosevelt broke out with the tradition of two periods set by George Washington and secured the third term because World War II broke out.

“It will really never happen before for a president to openly oppose the 222 amendment dictation and, moreover, to try to run or serve again as president,” said Michael Gerhardt, a constitutional expert at the University of North Carolina.

“Threats and satire are undoubtedly vibrating their bases, but there is no constitutional basis for the current president to try to serve as president after two elected periods,” Gerhardt said.

The only legal way for Trump to be able to run for the third term, said experts, is to change constitutions that are very unlikely because they will take two-thirds of the DPR and Senate, or two thirds of the state who agreed to call the constitutional convention. Then, every change will require three quarters of the state to sign ratification.

“Trump’s statement is brilliant in terms of capturing and distracting,” Schultz said. “His supporters liked him and the dispens will run amok. In the process, no one will talk about the price of eggs, tariffs, and shaky market markets.”

Experts broke the ‘method’ that hovered by Trump and his allies

As for Trump’s claim that one of the “methods” can be carried out as Vice President Vance and then ratified by sticks, the experts pointed to the 12th amendment from 1804 as a barrier.

“The 12th amendment states that anyone who does not meet the requirements to be president is also considered unreadable to serve as vice president,” said Barry Burden, Director of the Election Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “This means that Trump cannot function as a vice president, which is the position he needs so that the Vance scheme is executed.”

Steve Bannon, a fierce Trump allies, has also been floating what he calls alternatives to allow Trump to run in 2028.

Bannon, In Information on Gala New York Young Republican Club in December, argued that he could run again because the two Trump term Trump did not sequentially.

“Because it’s not really saying successively, I don’t know, maybe we do it again at ’28? Are you going down for that? Trump ’28?” Said Bannon.

Schultz said that the argument did not have a good legal basis.

“The overall boundary serving as president for ten years is textual proof of the bar to run for the third term of office and the indication of the intention of the Congress designer that they do not want anyone to serve more than two periods,” Schultz said.

Part 1 of the Amendment to the 222 State: “There is no one who has held the presidential position, or acts as president, for more than two years the term in which some other people are elected as president will be elected as a member of the president’s office more than once.”

Schultz added that the size “was applied to allow the situation in which a president died more than half of the term of office and the vice president replaced the person. The constitution thus allowed the Vice President to serve the remaining term of office and then served two more periods, for ten years.”

What happens if Trump keeps trying?

Trump has tested the limits of the constitution governing the president’s power several times in the first months of their second term of office.

Some Democrats view their comments on Sundays as other escalations on the rule of law. Chairman of the Democratic National Committee Ken Martin wrote in X: “This is what the Dictator did.”

In the past, the Republican Party mostly played Trump’s reflection on the third term of office as a joke intended to control the opposition. But only a few days after his inauguration, Rep. Andy Oggi Republic introduced a resolution that called for an extension of the president’s term of office to allow Trump to search for four more years in the White House.

“The crisis can arise if Trump nominates himself as president or vice president in 2028,” Burden said. “The constitution prohibits serving in the office but does not run for positions. If the Republican party runs it, they will bet that they can violate the constitution and somehow allow it to serve if he wins.”

If Trump is trying to run for nominating, it will depend on the election official and then the court to decide. In the 2024 campaign, several countries challenged Trump’s feasibility to find a presidential nomination from the Republican Party based on the 3rd Amendment of the Amendment because of his actions around January 6, 2021, an attack on the US Capitol. The legal battle went to the Supreme Court, which decided to support Trump.

“If people who do not meet requirements such as Trump are allowed to run to know that he does not meet the requirements to serve, it is a dangerous collision course where the US constitution and the rule of law will be seriously tested,” Burden said.

James Sample, a constitutional law expert at Hofstra University, said Trump would lose in court if he tried to run again.

“Most constitutions are written widely, textured, difficult to define. What is a fast trial? What is a cruel and unusual punishment? What are the same protection? How many legal processes? The 222 changes, however, are black and white,” sample said.

“But if you can succeed in turning a clear question into a debate, then the overall goal is to damage the constitution and damage the rule of law and maximize executive power is served even if you lose certain battles,” he continued. “This special battle is not a battle won. He will not undergo a third term of office, but only by framing this as a debate, he will succeed in eroding further respect for the constitution.”