Donald Trump serious about running a third term. What 'methods' is he hinting at?

US President Donald Trump has said that he is not joking about running for the presidency again and there are 'methods' for doing so. While the US Constitution under the 22nd Amendment bars any individual from running for the presidency for the third time, Trump supporters have said that the law can be interpreted differently as well. While any such maneuver would invite legal challenges, and courts would be asked to interpret the meaning of the 22nd Amendment, Trump and his supporters have been reiterating their stance.

What does the 22nd Amendment say? Can it be changed?

The 22nd Amendment states, "No person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice, 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 once."

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It is almost impossible to change the 22nd Amendment of the US Constitution. A two-thirds approval from both the Senate and the House of Representatives, as well as approval from three-quarters of the country's state-level governments, is required.

The Republican Party controls the Congress but does not have the numbers required to change the Amendment. The Republicans hold 53 of 100 seats in the Senate, and 218 of 435 seats in the House — well short of the 67 and 290 votes needed for passing a constitutional amendment in the Senate and the House, respectively.

An amendment can also be proposed by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the State legislatures. However, the Democrats control 18 out of the 50 state legislatures.

Can Trump be the President despite the 22nd Amendment?

"A lot of people want me to do it...I’m not joking," Trump said to NBC News. When asked whether he has been presented with plans to allow him to seek a third term, Trump said, "There are methods which you could do it."

His 'methods' include the interpretation by his supporters that the 22nd Amendment only bans someone being 'elected' to more than two presidential terms but says nothing about 'succession'.

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When Trump was asked in a recent interview if Vice President JD Vance would run for the top job, and then pass the baton to him, he said, “Well, that’s one.” So, hypothetically, if US Vice President JD Vance runs and wins for the presidency in 2028, he could be sworn in the White House only to resign and let Trump take over.

Another method of being the president for the third time can be if Republicans controlled the House. The speaker is elected by members of the House, and need not himself be a member of Congress. In that scenario, Trump could be elected as speaker, and then, if the president and vice president agreed to step aside, Trump could become president.

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Moreover, Andy Ogles, a Republican in the House of Representatives, introduced a resolution in January this year to allow a president to serve up to three terms as long the terms are not consecutive. Trump won in 2016, lost in 2020, and won again in 2024. Ogles' proposal became the talk of the town but has not made any significant progress legally. However, other Republican lawmakers can move a similar resolution in the future in favour of Trump's third term.

Another report has suggested that Trump may run for vice-presidency and while being the vice president, he may act as the de-facto president.

Has any US president run the third term?

Former President Franklin D Roosevelt (FDR) won four consecutive presidential elections in 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944. He died in 1945, just months into his fourth term.

Previous to this, the two-term tradition was followed as a tradition. Roosevelt's violation of the two-term tradition prompted Congress andt he states to turn it into a formal matter of constitutional law.

Political scientist and term limit scholar Michael Korzi, in a report, also said that the nation’s third president Thomas Jefferson had spoken in favour of a two-term limit for presidents and saw little distinction between "a long-serving executive in an elective position and a hereditary monarch."

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(With inputs from agencies)