WASHINGTON — Just days into President Donald Trump’s second stint in the White House, a Republican House member is looking to amend the Constitution to allow the current commander in chief to seek a third term in the Oval Office.
Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., this week introduced a resolution that seeks to change the 22nd Amendment, which was added in 1951 in the wake of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four-term White House tenure and mandates that U.S. presidents cannot serve in the office “more than twice.”
Ogles’ proposal would change the language of the nearly 75-year-old amendment to state that no person can serve as president “more than three times.” But it also goes on to state that no person can “be elected to any additional term after being elected to two consecutive terms,” an addition that would make the proposed change apply to no other living president except for Trump and, theoretically, former President Joe Biden if he sought a second term.
The three other former presidents still living — Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama — all served two consecutive terms.
In a press release announcing the resolution, Ogles said the move was designed for Trump to be able to stay in office for the next eight years. He argued Trump has “proven himself to be the only figure in modern history capable of reversing our nation’s decay and restoring America to greatness, and he must be given the time necessary to accomplish that goal.”
Ogles went on to specifically praise the flurry of executive orders Trump has already signed in the days since retaking the White House, specifically mentioning his actions pertaining to cracking down on migration, increasing domestic energy production and pulling the U.S. out of the World Health Organization.
The proposal from the Tennessee Republican faces steep odds of becoming law. There are two methods for proposing an amendment: a two-thirds vote of both the Senate and House or a two-thirds approval of state legislatures at a convention called by Congress. The latter method has never been used.
Congress would then choose between two methods for ratifying the amendment, either by a three-quarters majority of state legislatures or by a three-fourths majority of state ratifying conventions.
Nonetheless, Trump has brought up the idea — potentially in a joking manner — multiple times.
Most recently, after winning the election in November, Trump told a group of House Republicans, “I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say, ‘He’s so good we’ve got to figure something else out.'”
On the campaign trail over the summer, Trump told Christians voters that they “won’t have to vote anymore” if he were reelected.
Following Trump’s post-election comment to the House GOP in November, Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman of New York introduced his own resolution seeking to clarify that Trump is not eligible to run again in 2028 according to the language of the Constitution. The resolution did not go anywhere in the last few weeks of the previous session of Congress.
“We are a nation of laws, not kings,” Goldman wrote on X then. “The 22nd Amendment is clear that no person can be elected President more than twice. Any attempt by Donald Trump to do so is blatantly unconstitutional, and I call on my colleagues — D or R — to stand by their oath to defend the Constitution.”
Trump is the first U.S. president since Grover Cleveland in the late 1800s to serve two nonconsecutive terms. Roosevelt is the only president to serve more than two.
Spectrum News' Ryan Chatelain contributed to this report.