A republican in the congress wants to allow Trump to exercise a third term by modifying the constitution

Barely invested for a second term, an elected Trumpist from Tennessee to the House, Andy Ogles – who, a few days before, had tabled a bill aimed at authorizing the president to buy Greenland – already wishes to allow Trump to present himself A fourth time in 2028.

• Thursday, January 23, Ogles announced that it had introduced a common resolution aimed at modifying the 22nd amendment of the Constitution, ratified in 1951, which imposes a limit of two terms on the American presidents .
• Ogles’ proposal may not be taken seriously by the leadership Republican of the Chamber, which has the hand on the texts subject or not to the vote. Beyond the impact of such a change in the constitution on the stability of American political life, the GOP would have no chance of bringing the procedure without democratic support.
• The amendments to the Constitution are increasingly rare, the last significant modification dating from 1971. The vote of two-thirds of the two chambers of Congress and Trois-Quart (38) of the legislatures of the States is necessary for any amendment.

Although 78 years old (he will be 82 years old at the end of his second term), Trump left the door open to a third presidency during the campaign. A few days after his election, in November, he had declared to the Republican elected officials of the Congress: “I think that I will not represent myself unless you said:” It is so good that we must find something else “” . A few days later, the elected Democrat of New York Dan Goldman introduced a resolution aimed at preventing Trump from performing a third term, specifically mentioning the president in the text .

Ogles’ proposal is not isolated. During the second half of the 20th century, around fifty resolutions calling for the repeal of the 22nd amendment were introduced to the congress.

• According to the text submitted by Ogles, the amendment limiting the number of mandates by president to two would not be deleted (like most of the previous resolutions) but would pass it to three if the first two mandates were not consecutive. He thus aims to allow Trump to join Franklin D. Roosevelt among the presidents who were elected for more than two mandates. Trump is also the only president who had been elected for two non-committee terms from Grover Cleveland.
• In the press release accompanying the resolution, Ogles quoted the need “imperative to provide President Trump all the resources necessary to correct the disastrous path drawn up by the Biden administration […] He proved that he was the only character in modern history capable of reverse the decadence of our nation and to restore the greatness of America, and it is necessary to give it the time necessary to accomplish this objective ” .
• Initiatives to this effect had also been launched to allow the two Democratic presidents who have exercised two mandates since 1951, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, to appear a third time . These had not collected significant support, the latest opinion survey on the question testifying to a strong opposition to the lifting of the limits framing the presidential mandates: in 2013, 81 % of Americans were opposed to it .

The American presidents who reported or even worked in favor of an abrogation of the 22nd amendment since the 1950s said they wanted to suppress a limit perceived as going against American democracy for their successors. In 1986, Ronald Reagan (one of the 6 presidents who had exercised two terms since the imposition of the limit) had said in particular: “No president can decide in favor of the repeal of the 22nd amendment thinking of himself »» . It is on this point that the fundamental break with Trump is located, who would be favorable to the abolition of the limit in order to be able to appear again in 2028.