WASHINGTON — Two days after President Donald Trump said he may serve a third term in office, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said there’s a constitutional path to make it happen. Enabling a third term would require a constitutional amendment that Johnson called a "high bar."
Trump, he said, recognizes the constitutional limitations.
The 22nd Amendment, which was added to the Constitution in 1951 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected for a fourth consecutive term, says “no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”
Enabling a third term, or more, would require amending the U.S. Constitution, which requires a two-thirds majority vote in both chambers of Congress or a national convention called by two-thirds of state legislatures, according to the Office of the Federal Register. A proposed amendment is added to the Constitution when it is ratified by 75% of the states through their legislatures or conventions.
A constitutional lawyer before he became a politician, Johnson said in a response to a question about whether Trump is joking when he suggests serving a third term, “The president and I have talked about it, joked about it. We take him at his word.”
Trump himself said “I’m not joking” about a third term on Sunday. “There are methods which you could do it,” he told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” in a telephone interview.
