A Third Term for Trump? One Republican Congressman Is Trying to Make It Happen

From left, Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., Reps. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., and Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., talk in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol before Johnson won the speakership for the 119th Congress on Friday, Jan. 3, 2025. Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images

It hasn’t even been a week since Donald Trump returned to the White House, and yet here we are—already seeing attempts to keep him there even longer. Congressman Andy Ogles (R-TN) has introduced a constitutional amendment that would let Trump run for a third term. Yes, you read that correctly. The proposal reads and you can read it for yourself on his official government site.

“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.’”

Whether this thing goes anywhere is anybody’s guess. Amending the Constitution is extremely tough—two-thirds of the House and Senate and three-quarters of state legislatures have to say “yes,” and that’s a challenge. But here’s the problem: success or failure isn’t the main concern. Simply proposing this exposes an undemocratic mindset that should make every American alarmed.

Channeling the Autocrats

Proposals to rewrite term limits are an autocratic tactic! Vladimir Putin mastered staying in power by fiddling with term limits and by manipulating the legal and political systems to extend his rule as long as possible. Once dictators realize they can bend or break the rules, they just keep doing it. Look at Viktor Orbán in Hungary who gradually chipped away at democratic institutions and changed laws to keep himself in power—and in doing so demonstrated how easily those in authority can manipulate the system.

So even if this amendment never passes, the fact we’re even discussing it moves us one step closer to normalizing an idea that used to be unthinkable. Trump’s admiration for dictators has been obvious for over a decade—his fondness for Putin and love for Kim Jong-Un is well-documented. The last thing we need is to pick up notes from that playbook.

Real Ambitions Put Into Action

For ages, the Republican Party claimed it stood for limited government and a strict reading of the Constitution. Yet here we are, watching a GOP Congressman push the idea that Trump deserves more than two terms. It’s like flipping the script on decades of so-called “constitutional conservatism.”

Some people might shrug this off as performance art—just one guy making a statement. But keep in mind how the Overton window has shifted over the past decade and how much of the norms we used to value have been thrown out the window, with dangerous insanity now normalized. What was once unthinkable has increasingly become part of mainstream discourse, and that's perhaps the scariest part of all.

The fact that we’re even entertaining these ideas is a sign of just how far we’ve slipped from where we once were. For a moment, it feels surreal—and the fact that I even have to write about this in America is further reinforcement of what’s truly at stake.

What was once considered ridiculous can quickly turn mainstream. By filing this amendment, Ogles is testing how open the party is to an extended Trump presidency.

A Friendly Supreme Court

And let’s not forget that Trump reshaped the Supreme Court during his first term, appointing three justices who push a hyper-conservative agenda and often lean toward granting more power to the executive branch. We’ve already seen legal decisions that tip dangerously close to placing the president above the law, practically crowning him king under the guise of immunity.

If challenges to a third term went before the Supreme Court (and they definitely would), there’s every reason to believe this Court might line up behind Trump. It may seem alarmist, but look at the immunity arguments his lawyers floated—and how readily some justices embraced them.

Learning Nothing from 2021

We got a crash course in just how precarious our democracy can be—attempts to overturn election results, the Capitol insurrection, and so forth. The breakdown of once-ironclad norms showed just how quickly chaos can take hold. Now that Trump has managed to regain power, his most dedicated supporters seem to be asking, “What’s next? How can we keep him there?”

If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that extreme ideas find an audience—even when they seem fringe at first. And the truth is, what used to be labeled “fringe” has seeped into the mainstream.

Bottom Line

Sure, it’s a long shot. But even proposing this is a dangerous sign. Filing a formal amendment isn’t just idle talk—it’s a test of how far they can push the boundary.

The real threat is the MAGA mindset and once we start accepting a leader holding power longer than two terms, we’re eroding the guardrails meant to protect democracy. This isn’t some casual what if Trump sticks around chatter—it’s a red flag about how far some in the GOP are willing to go to consolidate power.

We can’t brush it off and even if it fails, the audacity to propose it speaks volumes. If we don’t take these moves seriously, we risk heading toward a Russia-style setup, where democracy is just a façade for one-man rule.

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