Republican congressman Andy Ogles has proposed a long-shot amendment to the Constitution that would allow President Donald Trump to seek a third term.
The Tennessee representative said he introduced the amendment to “ensure that we can sustain the bold leadership our nation so desperately needs.”
The 22nd Amendment of the Constitution — which was ratified in 1951 — states that presidents can only serve up to two full terms. Ogles’ proposal would “allow a President to be elected for up to but no more than three terms.”
Trump has floated the idea of seeking a third term before. He will be 82 years old by the end of his second term.
Ogles’s proposed amendment reads: “‘No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than three times, nor be elected to any additional term after being elected to two consecutive terms, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.’’
In a lengthy statement released on Thursday, Ogles argued that Trump’s “decisive leadership stands in stark contrast to the chaos, suffering, and economic decline Americans have endured over the past four years.”
Trump deserves to seek a third term because he “has proven himself to be the only figure in modern history capable of reversing our nation’s decay and restoring America to greatness.”
“He must be given the time necessary to accomplish that goal,” Ogles added.
Ogles rattled off a list of the Trump administration’s actions during the president’s first week in office, including tackling the “crisis at the Southern border,” ending birthright citizenship, withdrawing from the World Health Organization, and “reaffirming legally that there are only two genders, male and female.”
All of the above already face fierce opposition and challenges. And it will be much the same for Ogles’ proposal, as constitutional amendments require a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress, then ratification by 38 states. Republicans currently have a razor-thin majority in the House.
Ogles claimed it would take a decade to fix the “relentless abuses” of the Biden administration in his pitch to allow Trump to seek a third term.
Trump has repeatedly hinted that he would be open to seeking a third term in November 2024.
“I suspect I won’t be running again, unless you do something,” Trump reportedly told his GOP House colleagues shortly after winning the presidential election. “Unless you say, ‘He’s so good, we have to just figure it out,’” Trump said.
Republicans in the room later said he was joking.
“That was a joke. It was clearly a joke,” Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee told The Hill. “I leaned over to somebody beside me, [Arizona Rep.] Andy Biggs, and I said, ‘That’ll be the headlines tomorrow: Trump trying to thwart the Constitution,’ which — there’s nothing further from the truth.”
Trump also raised the prospect of serving a third term and violating other democratic norms in May 2024.
“You know, FDR 16 years — almost 16 years — he was four terms. I don’t know, are we going to be considered three-term? Or two-term?” he told a National Rifle Association convention, referencing Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
