Trump has been elected twice - he can't run for a third term - Trump must leave office on 20th Jan 2029 for last time - even Congress can't change this - set in US Constitution

The term limit is set in the US Constitution. in the 22nd Amendment, so the president can't change it and Congress can't change it.

QUOTE No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, ..

. constitution/amendment-22/

The only way to change it is with a Constitutional Amendment which can only be done at the end of a long process.

TEXT ON GRAPHIC:

Trump can’t be elected again after Jan 20th, 2029

20th Amendment: The terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January...

22nd Amendment: No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, ..

So Trump has been elected twice. He can't run for office again.

A presidential CANDIDATE can run for as many elections as they like

but they can't be ELECTED more than twice.

Also, the Constitution requires the president’s term to end on January 20.

There are no exceptions that would allow the president to stay in office after that date unless the president is reelected which Trump can't be because of the term limit.

QUOTE STARTS

No one, not even the president, can cancel the presidential election. Congress set the current date for presidential elections in 1845 and it has been held on this date every four years — even through the Civil War and two world wars – for over 175 years.

Furthermore, the Constitution requires the president’s term to end on January 20. There are no exceptions that would allow the president to stay in office after that date unless the president is reelected.

. Canceled Election

That is by the 20th Amendment.

QUOTE The terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January...

. constitution/amendment-20/

So Trump leaves the White House at noon on Jan 20th 2029 and nothing he can do can change that. Also nothing Congress can do. And there is no way that 38 states would ratify a change to this.

QUOTE STARTS

Only one person has served more than two terms as president: Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was the longest-sitting president in United States history, serving from 1933 to 1945.

That third term led to controversy, according to the National Constitution Center. The nation's first president, George Washington, had established a precedent of only two terms in office per president, and some saw Roosevelt's break from tradition as a threat to democracy.

In 1947, Congress approved the 22nd amendment. The amendment was ratified in February 1951.

How many times can someone run for president?

There's no limit to how many times someone can run for president.

There have been more than a few perennial candidates for president throughout American history. Harold Stassen, a former governor of Minnesota, ran for president as a Republican candidate nine times between 1944 and 1992. Lyndon LaRouche ran for president in eight consecutive elections between 1976 and 2004 — once as the candidate for the U.S. Labor Party, which he had founded, and seven times as a candidate for the Democratic party.

. Can Trump run again in 2028? Get the details on term limits for presidents

Any change in the text must be approved by 3/4 of US state legislatures, usually by a simple majority in both chambers in 3/4 of US states in both chambers (the governor’s approval not needed). In the special case of Nebraska which has only one chamber it needs just the one majority vote in the House.

BLOG: Why US constitution can’t be amended by Republican controlled legislatures on their own

BLOG: Why the US constitution and legal system makes it impossible for a president to become a dictator - and justices often rule against Trump

Also for anyone who might think that the Supreme Court would find some fantastical way to interpret The conservative justices are NOT MAGA and don't make their judgements for political reasons. They are formalist, originalist, and structuralist.

Republican presidents tend to choose justices that are

* originalist (original meaning of the text) and

* structuralist (idea that you can deduce many things from the structure of the constitution not said explicitly) and

* formalist (that law has an unchanging meaning it's their task to uncover)

Democrat presidents tend to select justices that are

* realist (that the uncertainty of law is a feature that helps justices adapt to changes in society).

Originalist, structuralist and formalist justices tend to favour conservative ideas but it is not based on any kind of political agenda and they often rule against Republicans.

The very last thing an originalist, structuralist or formalist justice would do is some new and original interpretation of the US Constitution that would interpret the term limit in such a way as to make it go away.

That makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE and won't happen.

BLOG: Conservative supreme court justices in the US are formalist / originalist and don’t decide by personal beliefs - but their decisions may tend to be more aligned with values Americans had long ago and liberal justices more with present day values

And as you see the text is really clear. There isn't any other way to interpret:

QUOTE No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, ..

. fconstitution/amendment-22/

QUOTE The terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January...

. constitution/amendment-20/

No justice could EVER be persuaded to interpret that text to say that Trump can stand for a third election or stay in office after Jan 20th.

Also there is nothing that Trump can do about it as president.

He tried to stay on last time. But he can't. At 12 noon, Jan 20th 2029, the keys to the White House go to the next president. He can no longer enter the house without permission and has to pack up all his things and leave.

Also at 12 noon on Jan 20th 2029 the oath of office of all the police, the National Guard, the military etc switches to the new president. Theoretically, if Trump told a regiment to march West and the next president told them to march East then at 1 noon Jan 20th they would have to turn and march the opposite direction as their oath automatically transferred from Trump to the next president.

Could Trump be selected as speaker and then the president and the vice president resign so he takes over as president for an unelected third term? - would be a Supreme Court case but likely skipped as ineligible

I can't see it actually happening. But on that hypothetical situation, I think that would go to the Supreme Court. It is possible to elect anyone as speaker of the House. There was some speculation about doing that with Trump.

If the president resigns the Vice president becomes president. If he also resigns then the Speaker of the House becomes president. The speaker of the House can be anyone the House selects, and doesn't need to be an elected legislator.

However anyone in the line of succession who is not eligible will be skipped. For instance if the Speaker of the House wasn’t born in America then it skips to next in the list.

In that case, the question would be if the speaker of the House is disqualified by getting elected twice.

The language is: "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice,"

But it doesn't actually say whether a person who has been elected twice can serve as president without being elected (e.g. through Speaker or Vice President).

I've looked it up and found this article about it:

QUOTE STARTS

The Debate Over Presidential Service Beyond an Elected Term

One argument has been made in recent years about the ability of president, twice elected, to serve in a non-elected capacity when the office of the president is temporarily vacated; or the ability of president, twice elected, to be elected or appointed as vice president.

Under the 25th Amendment, a vice president becomes president when the office is vacant due to the president’s death, resignation, or removal from office. The vice president also can act as president when the president is unable to discharge their powers. If the vice president is unable to assume the president’s duties, or the office of vice president is vacant, the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 comes into play.

Under the Succession Act, the Speaker of the House becomes the acting president until the disabilities or inabilities of the president and vice president are resolved. The Speaker must resign their position to become the acting president. The Senate president pro tempore and then cabinet members are next in line of succession.

In a 1999 law review article, Scott E. Gant and Bruce G. Peabody raised the question that the 22nd Amendment’s language about term limits for a president was limited to their time elected to office. “We contend that the Twenty-Second Amendment proscribes only the reelection of an already twice-elected President.” They pointed to situations where a former two-term president could serve as vice president, or as acting president under the Succession Act in non-elected roles.

In 2016, Peabody noted in a separate law review article that there were arguments made by other scholars that the 12th Amendment limited vice-presidential succession to the presidency, specifically the amendment’s last sentence: “But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.”

The Constitution Annotated from the Library of Congress has discussed several of these questions. It noted the debate over the language of the 12th and 22nd Amendments and the question of the eligibility of a two-term president to serve as vice president. “Note also that neither amendment addresses the eligibility of a former two-term President to serve as Speaker of the House or as one of the other officers who could serve as President through operation of the Succession Act.”

As for President-elect Trump, the Constitution’s Article 1, Section 2 does not list qualifications for the Speaker of the House role, and it only states that the House shall choose its own Speaker. As of today, the House has never picked a non-member as Speaker, but it could do so, subject to its own rules.

The Congressional Research service has noted that the debate over these questions arose in 1960 when President Dwight Eisenhower was ending his second term and the questions could remain hypothetical until they actually occur. It also quoted then Secretary of State Dean Acheson, who said the issues “may be more unlikely than unconstitutional.”

. The 22nd Amendment and Presidential Service Beyond Two Terms

Trump wouldn't want to be speaker of the House even temporarily. Also any Republican president - if they ran on a platform of doing this deliberately resigning to let Trump become president after only serving as speaker for a day or two - then I can't see many people voting for him.

And if he was a genuine president elected on a genuine platform of his own, and this is about him giving up or dying and his vice president also - then Trump would serve for some time at least before resigning and Trump just wouldn't be able to do the job of speaker of the House for long.

And then finally if such a situation ever did arise then from the things I found the Supreme Court likely rules it as unconstitutional with extremely low chances of success. The conservative justices are structuralist and that means they are willing to go beyond the text of the Constitution to draw out conclusions about the intention and here the intention is obvious that the president is not permitted to serve for 2 terms.

That is based on Roosevelt's opinion

QUOTE STARTS

Roosevelt, the University of Pennsylvania law professor, said any attempt to circumvent the 22nd Amendment in those ways would be challenged in court. “I think the odds of that [being successful] are extremely low,” he said.

“Obviously the concern the 22nd Amendment is addressing is that someone who serves more than two terms as president might accumulate too much power,” Roosevelt said. “That concern has nothing to do with how the person takes office the third (or fourth, or fifth) time.”

. Can Trump Serve a Third Term? - FactCheck.org

It just seems very implausible. Never likely to be tested and if it was likely proven to be unconstitutional.

In context a longer quote:

QUOTE STARTS

Peabody also told us in an email that a twice-elected president could run for vice president and serve as president if the president dies, resigns or is removed from office

....

(4) become Vice President-elect and then act as President if “a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of [the] term, or if the President-elect shall have failed to qualify” (20th Amendment)

(5) act as President under circumstances provided for by the Succession Act of 1947 which kicks in [when] both the President and the VP are unable to discharge their duties

Roosevelt, the University of Pennsylvania law professor, said any attempt to circumvent the 22nd Amendment in those ways would be challenged in court. “I think the odds of that [being successful] are extremely low,” he said.

“Obviously the concern the 22nd Amendment is addressing is that someone who serves more than two terms as president might accumulate too much power,” Roosevelt said. “That concern has nothing to do with how the person takes office the third (or fourth, or fifth) time.”

Why, then, does the 22nd Amendment say “be elected” instead of “serve”?

“[T]he answer is probably that the only other way to become president is by moving through the vice-presidency and they thought the 12th Amendment took care of that,” Roosevelt said.

The 12th Amendment, which was ratified in 1804, appears to disqualify a two-term president from being vice president. It extended the qualifications for presidents, such as age and residency requirements, to the vice presidency. It also states that “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.”

Peabody interprets the 12th Amendment more narrowly than Roosevelt.

“The most obvious reading of this provision is that it applies to the Article II language discussing eligibility: ‘No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.’ Someone who is not a ‘natural born Citizen’ or someone who is 34 can’t come in the ‘back door’ by being, say, a VP and then becoming president,” Peabody said.

“But, in my view, those are the only ‘eligibility’ restrictions mentioned in the Constitution. And, of course, Mr. Trump meets the Article II eligibility language,” he added. “Bottom line: A plausible reading of the Constitution is that Trump could serve out his second term and still become or act as president through one of the scenarios described above.”

The 2009 CRS report weighed both of these arguments and concluded, “It seems unlikely that this question will be answered conclusively barring an actual occurrence of the as-yet hypothetical situation.”

At least one Democrat wants to prevent such an occurrence. Rep. Dan Goldman of New York has said he would introduce a House resolution barring Trump from serving more than two terms. NBC News, which obtained a copy of the resolution, wrote that it “reaffirms that the 22nd Amendment ‘applies to two terms in the aggregate as President of the United States’ and reaffirms that it ‘applies to President-elect Trump.'”

. Can Trump Serve a Third Term? - FactCheck.org

Could Trump become president by running as vice president to Vance in 2028?

For the idea of Vance with Trump as running mate, he could do that but as with the speaker idea, the presidential order of succession skips anyone who isn't qualified to serve as president.

See for instance:

. How Trump could try to stay in power after his second term ends

There are two questions here, as for Trump as speaker. First, since the vice president can become president, is a former two term president eligible to be elected as vice president?

The answer seems, “no”. In more detail:

The 22nd amendment actually says:

But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.

https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/amendments/amendment-xii/interpretations/171

It would be up to the Supreme Court to decide if that includes having served two previous terms as president, or just to the usual requirements to be born in the USA and age at least 35.

Second, often those in the line of succession can be ineligible, commonly because someone in the order of succession is a US citizen but was not born in the USA. So if Vance then resigned it would go on to the next in the list after Trump, e.g. the speaker of the House if eligible.

There is a very long legal debate with numerous authors arguing both ways. See summary here

QUOTE Since 1999, a small but serious-minded group of researchers have considered whether twice elected Presidents can once again serve as the nation’s Chief Executive by pushing their way through various interstices in our supreme law. These scholars have reviewed and engaged past debates on this question, and introduced new lines of inquiry, but have not achieved much agreement about the Constitution’s strictures regarding presidential service.

This absence of consensus, together with the conclusions of prominent political figures (including both Clintons) that twice elected Presidents cannot again serve in the office of President place a heavy burden on those arguing to the
contrary.

Indeed, unsettled legal terrain is not a reassuring surface for someone who
would consider taking a bold and dramatic step back to the White House. Nor is it
comfortable footing for a nation that needs to have unstinting confidence in the authority, legitimacy, and power of its Commander in Chief.

. The Twice and Future President Revisited: Of Three Term Presidents
and Constitutional End Runs

So in short it would be a big gamble and as with the idea of Trump as speaker first it would likely fail.

Also unlike Trump as speaker this would need the electorate to be behind the idea from the get go.

Trump's presidency is likely to be chaotic and with such a slim majority he probably can't achieve much.

It seems unlikely he'd get so much confidence that the public would vote for a ticket with Trump as vice president in order to get in by the back door in this way with a strong chance the Supreme Court would say he's not eligible and the presidential succession has to skip him. And there is no way they’d believe that he wanted to run as vice President in 2028 and remain vice president to Vance for 4 years.

So this seems an implausible scenario.

There’s one more way it could happen - to elect a figurehead, a member of his family, who tells the public he will just do what Trump tells him to do. E.g. Donald Trump Jr his eldest son.

QUOTE STARTS

Then again, Trump might just want to avoid all of these legal subterfuges by following the example of George and Lurleen Wallace. In 1966, the Alabama Constitution prevented Wallace from running for a third consecutive term as governor. Still immensely popular and unwilling to give up power, Wallace chose to have his wife, Lurleen, run for governor. It was clear from the beginning that Lurleen was just a figurehead for George, who promised to be an adviser to his wife, at a salary of $1 a year.

The campaign’s slogan of “Two Governors, One Cause,” made it clear that a vote for Lurleen was really a vote for George.

Lurleen won in a landslide.

According to one account of her time in office, the Wallaces had “something of a Queen-Prime Minister relationship: Mrs. Wallace handles the ceremonial and formal duties of state. Mr. Wallace draws the grand outlines of state policy and sees that it is carried out.”

Trump’s wife was not born a U.S. citizen and therefore isn’t eligible to be president. But as the head of the Republican Party, Trump could ensure that the next GOP presidential candidate was a member of his family or some other person who would be absolutely loyal and obedient to him. If that person went on to win the White House in 2028, Trump could serve as an unofficial adviser, allowing him to continue to wield the power of the presidency without the actual title.

https://theconversation.com/how-trump-could-try-to-stay-in-power-after-his-second-term-ends-246722

That has less risk of legal issues. But it runs into the same issue of public confidence.

After a probably chaotic presidency it seems unlikely many would vote for a figurehead.

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