A Republican House member introduced a resolution Thursday to amend the U.S. Constitution to allow President Donald Trump — and any other future president — to be elected to a third term in the White House.
Trump “has proven himself to be the only figure in modern history capable of reversing our nation’s decay and restoring America to greatness, and he must be given the time necessary to accomplish that goal,” said Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee, who proposed extending the current maximum of two elected terms.
″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,” the amendment states.
Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all served two consecutive terms, and thus would be barred from being elected to a third term.
But not Trump, who is the first president since Grover Cleveland in 1892 to be elected to a second, non-consecutive term.
“He is dedicated to restoring the republic and saving our country, and we, as legislators and as states, must do everything in our power to support him,” said Ogles, a hard-line conservative who is serving his second term in the House.
“I am proposing an amendment to the Constitution to revise the limitations imposed by the 22nd Amendment on presidential terms,” he added.
Ogles’ move came three days after Trump was sworn in as president.
The resolution also comes two months after Rep. Dan Goldman, a New York Democrat, introduced a House resolution that “reaffirms that the Twenty-second Amendment applies to two terms in the aggregate as President of the United States,” and that the amendment applies to the 78-year-old Trump.
A White House spokesperson did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Ogles’ resolution.
Ogles’ effort faces long odds against success.
For a resolution to amend the Constitution to be sent to the Archivist of the United States, it must receive a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. If that is done, three-fourths of the states — 38 — must ratify the amendment for it to become part of the Constitution.
The 22nd Amendment of the Constitution states in part, “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”
