Trump Attorney Reportedly Analyzed Whether Trump Could Serve a Third Term Despite Clear Constitutional Prohibition

A Donald Trump attorney reportedly began studying in 2023 potential ways in which he could serve a third term if elected.

Concretely, the Wall Street Journal detailed how Boris Epshteyn said he had been studying the law and believed he could find a way to allow Trump to run again in 2028.

Speaking to the outlet, an associate of Epshteyn said he is now looking back to those comments with alarm as Trump openly floats the possibility, even such a possibility is clearly banned by the Constitution. Epshteyn is now Trump's outside counsel.

White House communications director Steven Cheung said "it's far too early to think about" a third term, but the president has repeatedly claimed that he is seriously considering the possibility. In an interview with NBC News this weekend he discussed "methods" to do so.

"A lot of people want me to do it," Trump told NBC News on Sunday morning. "But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it's very early in the administration," Trump said.

It is highly unlikely that Trump would be allowed to seek a third term. The 22nd Amendment, added to the Constitution in 1951 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected four times in a row, saying "no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice." changing that amendment would require a two-thirds vote of Congress and three-fourths vote of the states.

Reactions to Trump's statements are mixed, even among Republicans and allies. During a Monday morning appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box," a GOP lawmaker insisted he was not serious. Ohio Senator Jon Husted was asked how he felt about the president "openly talking about a third term" by changing the constitution or potentially using JD Vance to "hand over" the presidency.

"That's—the president was responding to a question. He wasn't advocating for that," Husted said. "We all know he would have to change the constitution for that and that would be highly unlikely," he added.

However, at least a section of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement supports the idea of having Trump remain in office well after his second term is over.

Three days after the president was inaugurated on Jan. 20, Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee filed legislation to try to make Trump eligible for a third term.

''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," the bill read.