President Donald Trump could slip back into the Oval Office in 2028 through an untested constitutional loophole, a former Watergate prosecutor said.
Jill Wine-Banks, who served as an assistant special prosecutor during Watergate, took up the question in a Wednesday episode of the “Sisters In Law” podcast alongside former U.S. Attorney Barb McQuade.
A listener wrote in that her husband was convinced Trump could run for vice president in 2028 and take over the top job if the president on the winning ticket resigned. She said she thought he could not.
“Of course, I don’t have a definitive answer because this is a case of first impression,” Wine-Banks said. “But if you read the language of…the Constitution, you cannot be elected more than twice to the office of president. It doesn’t say you can’t serve as president. So this would be a very tricky way around.”
The 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951, states that “no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.” It says nothing about a two-term president reaching the office through the line of succession.
Wine-Banks also took a jab at Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election. “If Donald Trump were correct, he already has won the election three times, but we know that’s not true,” she said.
“So, in my opinion, you know what I have to say, your husband has a point here and that it could happen,” she continued.
Still, she questioned whether the plan would hold up in practice. “Would the person elected actually be willing to give up the presidency that he had just fought for and won? I don’t know, but it is possible,” Wine-Banks said.
She also wondered whether the resigning president would then be appointed vice president and confirmed, calling the scenario “hard to imagine, but these things are possible.”
Many legal scholars see a roadblock elsewhere in the Constitution. The 12th Amendment says “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President.” Those scholars argued the clause keeps a two-term president off the ticket entirely, though Wine-Banks did not address it on the show.
Trump has repeatedly teased a third term despite the constitutional limit, keeping the question alive among critics and supporters alike.
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