President-elect Trump got a laugh out of House Republicans on Wednesday when he hinted to them about running for a third term, but a Democratic member didn't see the humor. So New York Rep. Dan Goldman said he'll introduce a resolution Thursday spelling out that the two-term limit for presidents mentioned in the Constitution applies not just to those elected back-to-back, but also to a president whose two terms are not consecutive. Trump ally and House Speaker Mike Johnson seems unlikely to let the resolution reach a floor vote, the New York Times reports.
The two-term limit "in the aggregate," the resolution says, "applies to President-elect Trump," per NBC News, which has read it. The resolution includes instances in which Trump has brought up serving more than two terms or becoming a dictator. One example took place in July, when Trump told supporters the system will be "fixed so good" that they won't have to vote for him again in four years. When he met with House Republicans on Wednesday, he told them, "I suspect I won't be running again unless you say, 'He's so good we've got to figure something else out.'" The members present seemed to take the comment as a joke, per the Times.
Even during his first term, he told a rally that he'd win another four years in the White House, "and then after that, we'll negotiate, right?"—adding that he was entitled to a third term "based on the way we were treated." The Constitution's 22nd Amendment specifies "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice." Changing that would require the House and Senate to approve the new wording by a two-thirds majority. Then 38 states would have to ratify the change. Goldman called Trump's statements on the matter "anti-democratic and authoritarian" and urged colleagues of both parties to "stand by the oath we all took to support and defend the Constitution of the United States." (More President-elect Trump stories.)
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