Donald Trump on Wednesday raised the idea of running for the White House in 2028. A hypothesis made impossible by the American Constitution. Indeed, the 22nd Amendment, adopted in 1947 and added to Article II of the founding text, specifies that no one may be elected to the presidency of the United States more than twice, whether the terms are consecutive or not.
“I think I won't run again, unless you say to yourself He's good, we have to consider something else,” said Donald Trump, during a speech to Republicans in Washington. Could the Republican therefore decide to modify the “supreme law of the United States of America”, in force since 1789, to run for a third term? The American Constitution can theoretically be amended: it has even been amended 27 times since its adoption.
Article 5 of the Constitution details the process, complex and made increasingly difficult by the political polarization of the country, to modify the text. There are, depending on the text, two ways to amend it.
An amendment can be proposed by Congress, that is, the Senate and the House of Representatives, in the form of a bill. The latter must be adopted by a two-thirds majority in each chamber. During the last elections, 34 of the 100 seats in the Senate were up for grabs. An election which was won by the Republicans who now have the majority in the upper house, with 52 seats. As for the House of Representatives, it should also swing to the Republican side.
An amendment can also come from a convention, convened by two-thirds of the 50 states that make up the country.
Once adopted, the amendments must be ratified by three-quarters of the states, or 38 out of the 50 that make up the United States. Certain amendments were thus adopted, but did not pass the stage of the ratification process, like the one prohibiting child labor in 1924.
The President of the United States cannot therefore decide alone on a modification, which remains a complex process. “It's quite difficult given the great political disparities that there can be between different states. Especially since there can be very strong consequences when the Constitution is amended,” underlined Christophe Cloutier-Roy, deputy director of the Observatory on the United States of the Raoul-Dandurand Chair in Montreal, cited by Le Devoir.
