How Trump could use loophole to stay president until 2037 | Politics | News

An expert has revealed how Donald Trump could circumvent the Constitution to stay president until 2037, despite being in his second and final term.

The 22nd Amendment of the US Constitution states that no person can be elected to the office of President more than twice. This means that presidents can only serve for a total of eight years.

The amendment was brought in in 1951 after Roosevelt was elected four times, the final two during World War 2. He was the only president to break the convention since it was established by Washington.

But a 1999 Minnesota Law Review article found a loophole in the amendment, saying it has been subject to “widespread misunderstanding” and that the idea of a president being banned from a third term is “decidedly incorrect”.

Professor Bruce Peabody’s paper contends that “the Twenty-Second Amendment proscribes only the reelection of an already twice-elected President.”

This argues that a twice-elected president could return to office through the vice-presidency if another president resigns or dies.

In this instance, JD Vance or another Republican could run for president with Trump as their vice-presidential candidate. They would then resign to allow Trump to step into office.

To gain a fourth term, Trump would need to step back as president before the 2032 election and become the Republican presidential candidate’s running mate.

This would undoubtedly be challenged in the Supreme Court for breaching the 22nd Amendment, but Peabody says it would be “pretty hard” to undo.

The majority of the court’s current judges have a more textual approach to Constitutional interpretation, meaning they would focus on the wording of the amendment rather than what the authors likely intended.

Because of this, a decision would likely come down to the use of the word ‘election’ in the amendment rather than the authors not wanting a president to be in control for longer than eight years.

Peabody added that if Vance and Trump ran with this plan being clear to voters, it could also be argued that voters approved and knew the outcome of their election.

The main spanner in the works would come from the 12th Amendment, which states that no person “constitutionally ineligible” to become president can run as vice-president.

Trump would be ineligible to become president due to having served two terms and thus would be ineligible to become vice-president.

However, Peabody’s paper said that the 12th Amendment refers to the other barriers of the presidency – the age minimum of 35 and being a natural-born citizen.