Key Trump ally told him an illegal and unconstitutional third term is not off the table

President Donald Trump appears to be earnestly looking for ways to serve an illegal and unconstitutional third term in the White House.That’s according to a Wednesday article in the Wall Street Journal, which reported that attorney Alan Dershowitz — who advised Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment — recently met with Trump in the Oval Office to discuss the possibility of Trump remaining in the White House after the 2028 election. Dershowitz maintained in an interview with the Journal that the U.S. Constitution was not “clear” about presidents serving more than two terms despite the 22nd Amendment.Dershowitz reportedly presented Trump with a draft copy of his book, Could President Trump Constitutionally Serve a Third Term, which explores hypothetical scenarios in which Trump could bypass the 22nd Amendment (which states that “No person shall be elected to the office of President more than twice”). The president told Dershowitz that he planned to read the book and asked him his thoughts on whether a third term was possible within the bounds of the law.”I said ‘it’s not clear if a president can become a third term president and it’s not clear if it’s permissible,'” Dershowitz told the Journal of his conversation with Trump.The longtime Trump ally clarified that Trump merely found the prospect of a third term intriguing as an “intellectual issue,” and that he doesn’t think the president will ultimately try to remain in office through 2032.”Do I think he’s going to run for a third term? No, I don’t think he will run for a third term,” Dershowitz said.In one of the scenarios Dershowitz laid out, presidential electors who meet in state capitols after every quadrennial presidential election to officially cast their votes for president could choose to abstain, meaning no candidate actually gets the required 270 Electoral College votes to become president. At that point, Dershowitz proposed that Congress could end up deciding who becomes president.According to Dershowitz, Congress deciding the election would mean that lawmakers “select, and not elect” the next president, seemingly circumventing the 22nd Amendment’s ban on anyone being elected to the presidency more than twice. Hofstra University law school professor called Dersowitz’s idea “absurd.”Click here to read the Journal’s full article (subscription required).

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