The 22nd amendment currently says the following (formatted for clarity):
No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, 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 once.
The proposed replacement says:
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.
So:
- President Trump could be elected to a third term because his first 2 terms were non-consecutive
- If President Trump passes away before the midway point of his term, Vice President Vance could serve out the rest of that term and still be re-elected twice after that on his own. As it currently stands the Constitution considers serving 2+ years of Trump's term to count as his first term and he could only be subsequently elected once after that.
- There is no change to the specific word "elected", meaning that it remains a possibility that a person who is no longer eligible to be elected President could nevertheless serve an unlimited number of terms either by being appointed Vice President by the President who then subsequently dies or resigns; or by being elected Speaker of the House and ascending to the Presidency due to simultaneous vacancies in both the VP and President roles.
I mean if the left wanted to play as dirty as the right, could they just have a token candidate running with Obama as VP, who makes it clear they will resign the presidency to the VP on day one?
Oh please. Trump gets to put forth these outrageous proposals because (almost) nobody believes he will follow through with them. But the House? Bad idea.
No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, 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 once.
The proposed replacement says:
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.
So:
- President Trump could be elected to a third term because his first 2 terms were non-consecutive
- If President Trump passes away before the midway point of his term, Vice President Vance could serve out the rest of that term and still be re-elected twice after that on his own. As it currently stands the Constitution considers serving 2+ years of Trump's term to count as his first term and he could only be subsequently elected once after that.
- There is no change to the specific word "elected", meaning that it remains a possibility that a person who is no longer eligible to be elected President could nevertheless serve an unlimited number of terms either by being appointed Vice President by the President who then subsequently dies or resigns; or by being elected Speaker of the House and ascending to the Presidency due to simultaneous vacancies in both the VP and President roles.