this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2024
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im 100% canadian, I dont live in the US and wondering about your system.

so as i understand your political system, a president can only hold office 2 terms. in Trumps case, he served once already, does that mean he can only serve one more, or is the clock reset and he gets a shot at 8 years?

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[–] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

The two term limit was set by the 22nd amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The language in it is that no person may be elected to the office of President for more than two terms. It does not specify any criteria about consecutive terms, meaning it doesn't matter. They simply can't be elected more than twice to the office President under any conditions. It also specifies that if they served more than two years as President when they weren't elected to that office (such as when a VP assumes the office after the President dies), they can't be elected to the office of President more than once. In other words, a 2+ year term of a president after succeeding the previous president whose term ends early, counts as a full term in regard to this 2 term limit.

In other words, this SHOULD be his last term. There are two legal loopholes, however. 1) If he somehow managed to coerce a skip or elimination of the next election, he could assume another term without defying the constitution. There is currently no mechanism to do that, but an act of a partisan Congress upheld by the partisan Supreme Court could make such a thing possible. 2) if he ran as VP for another person, which is constitutionally allowed, he could be elected as VP and then the elected President could resign, die, or be removed from office and Trump would be President again. Also, a new amendment to the constitution could be passed to negate or modify the 22nd amendments' term limit. Though that would require a lot of Democrats also voting for it.

[–] radix@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)
  1. if he ran as VP for another person, which is constitutionally allowed, he could be elected as VP

This is an interesting, but untested, legal theory. When Al Gore ran in 2000, there were murmurings of whether he should try to get Bill Clinton on the ticket as VP. Ultimately, there was some consensus that this part of 12th Amendment wasn't superseded by any others: "But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."

It's a bit of an open question whether that means only those parts of the eligibility requirements in place at the time (35 years old, natural born citizen, etc), or whether new requirements are also included, such as already serving two full terms as President. Clinton/Gore didn't want to push those boundaries, but Trump certainly could try.

Edit: The 2012 book Constitutional Cliffhangers has a whole chapter dedicated to this and similar scenarios. It became a must-read in Trump's first term, and is even more of one now.

[–] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Honestly, I would be very surprised if he were disallowed. Not only because, as you said, it is unclear if the 12th amendment eligibility conditions apply to conditions added after the 12th amendment and make no reference to modifying it. But also because the 22nd amendment does not, in fact, specify that someone who has served two terms is ineligible to be President. Rather it is very specifically a condition about being elected to president. If we're interpreting the constitution strictly literally, the 22nd amendment doesn't make a new condition for eligibility to be President, only for being elected president. So the 12th amendment would not apply. That may not have been the intent, but if anyone thinks the same Supreme Court that ruled that the President has absolute immunity on the use of his presidential powers isn't going to let Trump slide right through that loophole... well, you could probably convince them it was raining as you piss on their leg.

They can chose trump as the speaker of the house (who doesn't need to be a representative) and then get the president and vp to resign, to be removed, or die, and trump becomes acting president for the rest of the term.

[–] esc27@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

He could run again as a placeholders VP, then have the placeholder resign after taking office. This would bypass the can only be "elected" twice rule.

Yes, there is an amendment that requires a VP to meet the same eligibility requirements as the president that should prevent this, but a corrupt court could rule that since that amendment does not explicitly mention term limits, those do not apply...

Lol they can bypass the vice president ineligibility part by chosing trump as speaker of the house and then run placeholder candidates for president and vice president, then get rid of them and trump becomes acting president for the rest of the term.

[–] Carrolade@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Assuming he abides by constitutional law, this will be his final term.

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

When has he ever avoided by any laws?

[–] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Two terms, regardless if consecutive or not.

Technically the limit is on if a person can be elected to the office. It might be possible for a person that have been elected president 2 times to the run for vice president and have a loyalist run as president, then have the loyalist resign after getting sworn in and making the VP president. But a person that isnt eligible for president should not be eligible for vice president either. But we dont know if this means a person who isnt eligible to be elected president can become vice president, since the person can still serve as president, just not elected to it. We don't know since this has never been court tested.

Also if a person serve less than 2 years, they can still run for 2 terms. So even without the "president resign and VP becomes president" shenanigan, a person can technically serve for 10 years minus 1 day.

Also, the speaker of the house does not have to be a member of the house. So technically a person who has been elected 2 terms can be chosen as speaker of the house, then have the president and vice president resign and the person now become acting president for the rest of the term. I'm pretty sure this maneuver doesnt need to go through courts since you can become speaker of the house even if you are inelligible to become president or vice president, so it wouldn't prevent the person from being speaker, and the text on the 22nd amendment only prevents a person form being elected more than twice, no mention of any limit on if a person can serve or act as president.

Anyways, thanks for coming to my ted talk on political shenanigans.

[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago

Assuming he doesn't change the rules and appoint himself president forever, then the limit is 2 terms, consecutive or not.

Even if a person started their presidential mandate partway through a 4 year cycle (as happened after Nixon stepped down and after Kennedy was shot), it's still 2 terms, not necessarily 8 years.

If Trump dies in the next 4 years, Vance could serve out the current term and would only be eligible to become president for one additional term.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The clock is not reset like Russia.

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