It's afternoon in Washington on Saturday January 20, 2029. Inauguration Day. A bearded man steps forward for the American Capitol and raises his right hand and puts his left hand on the Bible.
“Me, James David Vance, sites solemn …”
Moments later, the new president of the United States, with a knowing smile, explains: “I resign.”
His current partner embraces him in a bear hug. The crowd of hundreds of thousands in the National Mall is bursting into cheers of 'Trump, Trump, Trump' and 'Four Years'.
Donald Trump has become president for the third time.
This sounds like a conspiracy theory, or a Maga flight from Fancy. After all, as everyone with a passing knowledge of the Constitution knows, the 22nd amendment limits the presidents to two terms.
But could a scenario in which Trump stays in the White House then that really happens? The surprising answer from experts is – yes.
In fact, the path for Trump is to serve a third term – and possibly a fourth until January 2037 if it would turn 90 – is not only possible, it is simple, thanks to a striking Maas in the amendment.
Rol wap? A plan with JD Vance can allow Trump to serve a third term
The idea of ​​operating this Maas in the law has long been percolating in academic circles, behind the scenes in the congress and the White House, and recence among the most fervent supporters of Trump.
By carrying out it, an army of lawyers would require to carry out mysterious legal acrobatics with the Constitution.
Instead, the move would depend on the interpretation of one word – 'election' – in the 22nd amendment and the loyalty of one man – Vance.
It would also require Trump to have sufficiently popular support to win for a third term in the polls.
The 22nd amendment
The text of the full 22nd amendment says the following:
“Nobody is elected more than twice in the office of the president, and no person who has held the office of President, or has succeeded for more than two years of a period, will be elected more than once in the office of the president.”
The amendment was ratified in 1951 and was a direct response to Franklin Delano Roosevelt who had been chosen four times – on the third and fourth occasions during the war.
He was the only president who did this, because the convention of only two installments was set by George Washington.
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Supreme Court of Justice John Roberts after being sworn during inauguration ceremonies in the Rotunda of the American Capitool on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC
The Maas in the law
The Maas in the 22nd amendment is set out in an article in Minnesota Law Review in 1999 co-author of Professor Bruce Peabody and entitled 'The Twice and Future President'.
It outlines how the amendment is subject to 'widespread misunderstanding' and concludes that the idea that every twice -chosen president is 'constitution -al prohibited' is again 'certainly incorrect'.
According to the newspaper: “We claim that the twenty -two amendment will only rearrange the re -election of a president that has already been chosen twice.”
The most important sense of the amendment is: “More than twice the president's office will be chosen in the president's office …”
It is argued that means that a president chosen twice would not be excluded from re -making the office again because of the resignation or death of another president.
Trump could therefore run for vice -president, with Vance as an openly recognized nominal figure at the top of the ticket.
As soon as he is sworn in Vance, it could resign, so that his vice -president – Trump – is entering the office.
The same procedure can be used in several elections.
To win a fourth term, Trump should simply put down the presidency before the 2032 elections and become the current partner of a nominal presidential candidate, who are VANCE or someone else.
Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump Dance on the Liberty Ball, one of the events held after the inauguration of US President Donald Trump in Washington, DC on January 20, 2025
The Supreme Court
Opponents could challenge such a step in the courts and claim that it infringes the 22nd amendment.
But Professor Peabody told DailyMail.com that it would be 'pretty difficult' for the Supreme Court to undo.
That would be especially in view of the conservative composition of the current court and its bent in the direction of a texualistic interpretation of the Constitution.
Each decision would probably be based on the definition of the word 'election' instead of what the authors of the 22nd amendment are intended.
Even if the plan was not clandestine, but instead openly revealed to the electorate before the vote, it would be difficult to claim that it was not a democracy in action.
If people knew they voted for – “voice vance, get Trump” – it would be difficult for opponents to claim in court that the mind – let alone the letter – was broken of the constitution.
“I think it's one of those surprisingly simple scenarios,” said Professor Peabody.
“What seemed crazy a few decades ago now seems too plausible.”
Trump would indeed not be the first president who looks at the idea.
How other presidents viewed the 22nd amendment
The Minnesota paper outlined how countless presidents were aware of the potential to serve a third term in this way.
Shortly after the 22nd amendment President Eisenhower was ratified, said that it did not seem 'completely wise', the report noted.
Eisenhower said that the electorate should be able to choose his president who wants it, regardless of the number of conditions he has served. “
He even increased the opportunity to run as a vice -president in 1960 and then re -make the office himself.
“The only thing I know about the presidency next time is this: I can't run,” he said. “But someone asked that I was invited, I could constitutionally run for vice president.”
He later said that the Ministry of Justice had looked at it and concluded that it would be “absolutely legal for me to do this.”
In the case he didn't.
President Dwight Eisenhower suggested that a third term was possible
President Truman regretted that the 22nd amendment made every second term chairman of a 'crippled duck'.
Later, President Reagan called the amendment 'ridiculous' and suggested that it “disrupted the democratic rights of the people” to choose who they wanted.
The Paper of Minnesota notes that the final language of the ratified 22nd amendment differed from previous versions that did not end the possibility of a third term under any circumstances.
The original formulation specified that everyone who was president on 365 calendar days or more in each of the two periods is not eligible to keep the office of president, or to act as president, for any part of a different period. '
That may be weakened – although it is speculation – to make the possibility of a president chosen twice possible to be called back to the office in the moment of war or emergency situation.
But it leaves the possibility of a third term for Trump open.
George Washington in a portrait painting by Constable-Hamilton, 1794 from the New York Public Library
The twelfth amendment
It has been claimed that the 12th amendment would prevent Trump from being a vice president.
The amendment partially says: “No person who is not constantly eligible for President's office is eligible for that of vice president of the United States.”
However, the 12th amendment was ratified in 1804. Almost 150 years before the 22nd.
The Paper of Minnesota notes: 'The moment the twelfth amendment was written, there was of course no change of twenty seconds; That is why the twelfth amendment could not have been intended to prevent someone from being a vice president who had been chosen as president twice. '
Instead, it states that the referral from the Twelfth amendment to 'qualifying' means what was already in the constitution at that time – that nobody could serve if they were not a natural citizen and at least 35 years old.
Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev came to an arrangement so that Putin could serve more conditions
The Putin-Medvedev precedent
There is a modern precedent for Trump that strives for a third term, which is sometimes called the Putin-Medvedev method.
In 2008, Putin was constantly excluded from the search for a third consecutive term as president.
His loyal employee Dmitry Medvedev stood and was chosen as president, after he publicly promised Putin as his prime minister.
Putin used Power by Medvedev, for that period, and then again stood for the president in 2012.
