#the 22nd amendment

[tomorrowusa]

Never mind the 22nd amendment. Some Trumpsters are already talking about a THIRD Trump term.

The American Conservative magazine published an article last week in which the author, Peter Tonguette, argued that Trump should be able to run for a third term in office in 2028. This drew some attention in non-Trump circles as a potential trial balloon by Project 2025, the authoritarian policy agenda that is guiding Trumpworld right now. Tonguette argued that Trump’s victory in the GOP primary contest this year shows that voters still support him—and that they should be allowed to do so indefinitely. “As the primary season has shown us, the Republicans have not moved on from Trump—yet the Twenty-second Amendment works to constrain their enthusiasm by prohibiting them from rewarding Trump with re-election four years from now,” he wrote, perhaps getting ahead of himself a bit. I do not doubt that Trump would run for a third term if he could. He has addressed the possibility before, suggesting in 2020 that he should get to run for one “because they spied on my campaign,” referring to his political opponents. And at a closed-door fundraiser in 2018, Trump also favorably referred to Chinese President Xi Jinping for eliminating the two-term limit in that country. “He’s now president for life, president for life, and he’s great,” he reportedly told his supporters. “And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot someday.”

Maybe Trump's campaign slogan for 2028 should be: Make America Belarus. The dictator of Belarus, a Putin satellite, has been using rigged elections to remain in power since 1994.

Never mind the US Constitution. Trump's trained seals on the US Supreme Court will gladly find some loophole allowing him to be president in perpetuity.

If somebody says he wants to be a dictator, believe him – especially if he's already a big fanboy of despots like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, and Xi Jinping.

It's almost always easier to prevent a dictator from taking power than it is to get rid of one who is already in power.

[rejectingrepublicans]

The dementia patient who was fart sleeping in court wants to be president at 86.

[thingstrumperssay]

Tennessee Republican proposes amendment to allow Trump to serve third term

Republicans: "You can't do anything about the second amendment! It's an amendment!"

Also republicans: "Of course we can change the 22nd amendment to the constitution! That's what an amendment is!"

Edit: I forgot to mention that this was written in a way to make sure that Obama can't run again because he got two consecutive terms.

[deadpresidents]

What if the only hope I’m clinging to right now is that he can’t ever run again after this term? Is that hope even safe? Could he change everything to make himself president for the rest of his life?

Part of me hopes that they do amend the Constitution to eliminate Presidential term limits and then Barack Obama (who is 15 years younger than Trump, by the way) comes back and beats the brakes off of him in 2028.

I don't think that there is enough support to actually eliminate term limits, though. It's really difficult to amend the Constitution and that's what would have to happen. Despite the subservient personality cult that has been installed in Congress to help further the aims of the MAGA movement, I don't see a realistic path to repeal or change the 22nd Amendment.

Could he simply ignore the law and try to continue to hold on to power? Well, considering what we've seen from him in the past and already in this second term I can't see how we can rule anything out. That's what happens when a country elects unfit and untrustworthy leaders who openly speak of absolute power and admire authoritarianism. Because ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES. And, this time, there are NO guardrails, NO "adults in the room", NO General Milley or Rex Tillerson or John Kelly or General Mattis, or...fuck...even a John Bolton or William Barr. This time around, Trump has an entire Executive Branch full of people fully invested in letting him do what he wants. He also has a Legislative majority willing to support and amplify those urges, and a Judiciary that seems uninterested in challenging him. No matter how hard you search through the federal government, you will not be able to find a check or balance anywhere in the District of Columbia right now.

Trump is shaping the federal government to serve him. You know, it's almost like there was a playbook that the MAGA movement is working from, as if they planned out what they would do if they took back power in 2025 and are using it as a blueprint for systematically dismantling the federal government and rolling back protections for people who don't look like them.

[akiizayoi4869]

This is honestly funny to me. Aside from the fact that this proves these dumb fucks have no clue how the constitution works, the way how this is worded shows you how terrified they are of the former presidents running against Donald Trump for a third term, particularly Barack Obama. It's almost as if they know that Trump won't be able to beat him.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Rhian Lubin at The Independent:

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.’’ [...] 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.

Congressman Andy Ogles (R-TN) proposes a flagrant mockery of a constitutional amendment that would permit Donald Trump and any future Presidents a third term while barring Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama from seeking a 3rd term. Thankfully, his party doesn’t have a 2/3rds majority in either chamber, let alone 3/4ths of states, to make such a drastic change.

See Also:

The Daily Beast: MAGA Rep Wants to Rewrite the Constitution to Give Donald Trump a Third Term

The Hill, via NewsNation: Tenn. Republican proposes amendment to allow Trump to serve 3rd term

Salon: Republican introduces measure to allow Trump a third term — but not Obama

[tanisha-r0]

if the 22nd amendment is successfully altered and we have to deal with these atrocities for the next EIGHT YEARS, consider the noose already tied around my neck.

[yrsofafterglow]

1461 days until Trump is out of office, forever

[larrywilmore]

Concerns about the next 4 years

Overturning the 22nd amendment,  revenge, congressional complicity...S.E. Cupp and I talk about what worries us most in the upcoming administration and our hope that the checks already in place hold.

Listen to our full conversation

[master-jarrus]

I don't care if you think this won't pass it is fucking serious that they are even trying

More than two terms will break down the checks and balances

No one and I mean no one, red, blue, green, etc, should not have more than two terms

I don't give a fuck if they didn't have their term consecutively either. This will legitimately break down our checks and balances

[deadpresidents]

This is a sort of silly hypothetical, but I'm still curious:

Let's say that a president serves 2 terms, but for whatever reason wants to be on a ticket again. Could he run as someone's vice president after his own terms?

If he could, and that ticket won, what would happen if the president died? I'm pretty sure that a president can technically serve up to 10 years, even under the 25th amendment, in the case of a presidential ascension after half of the previous president's term (like how Coolidge or L. Johnson could have run for second full terms but, say, T. Roosevelt or Truman couldn't've [post 25th amendment].)

If a president died less than 2 years in and his vice president already had 2 terms served prior, would the office still go to the veep even if it would give him over 10 years as executive? Or would it go to the next person in the line of succession?

If a someone served two full terms as President, they would not be eligible to serve as Vice President.

The eligibility requirements for the Vice Presidency are exactly the same as those for the Presidency, so since they would be term-limited and unable to serve as President, they would also be unable to serve as Vice President. If someone is ineligible to serve as President for any reason, they are also ineligible to serve as Vice President for that very same reason.

The only way a President could serve more than eight years is if they were Vice President and succeeded to the Presidency and there were less than two years left in the Presidential term that they were assuming. In that case, they could still run for President in their own right for two full terms. So the best two examples, post-22nd Amendment, would be LBJ and Gerald Ford. When LBJ succeeded JFK, there were less than two years left in JFK's unfinished term which had started on January 20, 1961. So, LBJ ran and was elected in his own right in 1964, and he could have run again in 1968 if he wanted to.

On the other hand, when Richard Nixon resigned in August 1974 and Gerald Ford succeeded him, there were still more than two years left in Nixon's unfinished term which began on January 20, 1973. Ford was able to run for a term in his own right in 1976. But if Ford had won the 1976 election, he would not have been able to run for another term in 1980 because he had served more than 2 years of Nixon's unfinished second term.

[ask-evil-x]

Me and my friends are legit fucked, the orange man is now in charge of the country we live in and my friend who did research says that orange man is a disgusting person and the tumblr people have informed me via their posts that America may very well have a state similar to a that of a three colored one years and years ago.

the-

the orange man-

???

orange anon? from other blogs?

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Richard Luscombe at The Guardian:

Alarm over Donald Trump’s suggestion he would be willing to serve an unconstitutional third term as president, made during his meeting with House Republicans on Wednesday, has prompted a Democratic lawmaker to seek a formal resolution rejecting the idea. The president-elect drew laughter from the Republican caucus for his remarks about the possibility of remaining in the White House beyond January 2029, which would be prohibited by the 22nd amendment limiting a commander-in-chief to two four-year terms of office. “I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say, ‘He’s so good we’ve got to figure something else out’,” said Trump, who incited the deadly January 6 Capitol riot in 2021 to try to cling on to power at the end of his first administration. On Wednesday Dan Goldman, the New York Democratic congressman, said he plans to file a motion this week specifically mentioning Trump and reiterating the two-term clause from an amendment approved by Congress in 1947, two years after Franklin D Roosevelt’s four-term, 12-year presidency before and during the second world war ended with his death.

A lengthy ratification process was completed in 1951 when 36 of the then 48 states gave their consent to the prohibition of any person who had been elected to the presidency twice from standing again. Goldman’s motion, according to NBC News, which saw a copy, features language highlighting the amendment “applies to two terms in the aggregate as president of the United States” and reaffirms that it “applies to President-elect Trump”. The initiative, first reported by the New York Times, is unlikely to receive a scheduled vote in the House, which was projected on Wednesday to remain in Republican hands under the speakership of Mike Johnson, a vocal ally of the 78-year-old president-elect. But the Democrat could seek to introduce it as a privileged motion, which would guarantee it floor time, a procedural tool previously used to force votes on the ousting of Republican former speaker Kevin McCarthy last year, as well as the expulsion from the House of his fabulist former colleague George Santos.

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) is set to file a motion to make sure the two term limit set by the 22nd Amendment is strictly enforced, whether consecutive or non-consecutive, to prevent Donald Trump from gaining any funny ideas about running for a 3rd term.

[cute-animals-serious-thoughts]

To add context to that last bit, in 2009, *one* guy proposed a bill to get rid of the 22nd amendment & it had no one sign into it. That guy had been proposing this same bill over and over again back to when Clinton & W Bush were president. It wasn't "for Barack Obama."

So no, it's not "every bit as cringe." It's actually terrifying that the current president is suggesting the constitution should be changed to allow him to stay in power, and we've seen he has the influence with his party (who are fully in control right now) to get them to do anything he wants.

why why why won't they take this man at face value

[oneofthosecrazycatladies]

Okay so we have this huge problem with forgetting about everything that’s happened by the time the next election rolls around so I’d like to keep a running list of things as they’re happening to help remind us when the 2026 midterms roll around. And please add to this if I’ve missed anything.

January 2025:

Donald Trump pardoned 1500 people who participated in the insurrection of January 6th, including those who violently assaulted and nearly killed police officers.

Donald Trump has declared that trans and non-binary people don’t exist.

Donald Trump is working towards firing everyone in the government who isn’t loyal to him.

Donald Trump has effectively fired everyone who he claims is an “illegal DEI hire” …whatever that means

Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization

Congress are trying to pass the Laken Riley Act to, effectively, round up every immigrant in the country, including LEGAL immigrants

Donald Trump removed caps on prescription drug prices.

Donald Trump wants to withhold federal aid to help combat the LA wildfires and help the thousands of people who have been displaced and lost their homes.

The Department of Justice has put a hold on all civil rights cases.

Donald Trump has cut off aid to Ukraine.

Laken Riley Act has been passed by Congress and is awaiting being signed into law by the President. Here’s the breakdown of the votes: House Senate

Donald Trump purged a dozen inspectors general from the federal government and intends to replace them all with people loyal to him.

Pete Hegseth has been confirmed as Secretary of Defense. Here’s the breakdown of how the Senate voted. Note, it was a 50-50 tie that JD Vance had to break.

Donald Trump imposed a 25% tariff on Colombia after the Colombian government turned away two airplanes carrying migrants. Columbia has retaliated by imposing a 25% tariff of its own on US goods.

Donald Trump has also issued a travel ban for Colombian citizens and revoked visas from Colombian migrants coming to the US.

Donald Trump has now backed off the tariffs and other threats against Colombia. Note for future reference: this comes just hours after Trump made the threat in the first place and he and the Colombian president got into a big fight on social media.

Nearly 1,000 migrants were arrested mostly in Chicago on January 26th by ICE and ICE has been told to meet a quota of 75 migrant arrests every day.

Donald Trump rescinded an anti-discrimination executive order from Lyndon B. Johnson

Donald Trump signed an executive order banning trans people from serving in the military and also ordered that people who were discharged for refusing to get mandatory vaccines be reinstated.

Donald Trump has frozen all federal grants to institutions.

After pressure from state governments, activist groups, and the general public, the White House has rolled back some of the freezes on federal funding.

Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN) has proposed a change to the 22nd Amendment to allow Donald Trump, specifically, to serve a third term.

Donald Trump is trying to fire all federal employees who don’t want to return to the office (work-from-home saves the federal government millions of taxpayer dollars in overhead). He also sent an email to federal employees saying that if they’re not loyal to him, they’ll be investigated.

Donald Trump has signed the Laken Riley Act into law.

Donald Trump has said he doesn’t think Palestinians should be allowed to return to Gaza but instead should be sent to Egypt and Jordan.

Native Americans have been targeted by ICE raids.

Donald Trump has ordered undocumented immigrants to be sent to Guantanamo Bay

Donald Trump signed an executive order to expand federal funding for school choice programs. [x]

Donald Trump signed an executive order saying that he will deport visa-holding students who protest against Israel. [x]

Donald Trump has blamed DEI for the plane crash that killed 67 people in Washington D. C. [x]

Donald Trump signed an executive order that schools should no longer teach about racism and discrimination. And that schools should only teach history that is “patriotic” [x]

Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna wants to add Donald Trump’s face to Mount Rushmore. [x]

Trump’s Department of Education has called book bans a hoax. [x]

The Department of Justice has barred certain news outlets from receiving information from the Pentagon. [x]

The Trump administration has fired multiple FBI officials who investigated the January 6th insurrection. [x]

February 2025

March 2025

I’ll keep adding to this list as new things come up and, again, please feel free to add anything I’ve missed. I know that in this world of constant news it’s easy to forget, so let’s give our future selves a little help!

[suswous]

The only reason the Trump administration won’t be as bad as it could be, is because people are going to fight against it. People are going to have to be able to fight against it, which may get harder, but the fact of the matter is, it is possible to fight to diminish how much harm he does, but people will need to fight against it.