House Speaker Mike Johnson, who was a constitutional lawyer before he entered politics, responded to President Donald Trump’s renewed talk of an unconstitutional third term at a House Republican leadership press conference on Tuesday.
In an interview with NBC News on Sunday, Trump did not rule out the possibility of seeking a third term, telling the network there are “methods” for doing so and that “a lot of people want me to do it.”
“I’m not joking,” the president added.
A number of times over the last seven years, Trump has publicly talked about seeking more terms than the limit of two outlined in the 22nd Amendment.
“President Trump this weekend in an interview with my colleague Kristen Welker said that when he repeatedly brings up the idea of running for a third term, that he is not joking. You are a constitutional law expert,” a reporter said to Johnson on Tuesday. “Is there a legal constitutional path for him to seek a third term? And would you support him if he went down that road?”
“There’s a constitutional path: you have to amend the Constitution to do it. And that’s a high bar,” Johnson responded.
“The president and I have talked about this, joked about it. He’s joked about it with me on stage before,” the Speaker said. “We take him at his word.”
Johnson was referencing a moment during Trump’s address at the House GOP Issues Conference on January 27 in Miami, in which the president called out to the Speaker: “I’ve raised a lot of money for the next race that I assume I can’t use for myself, but I’m not 100% sure because, I don’t know. I think I’m not allowed to run again. I’m not sure. Am I allowed to run again, Mike? I better not get you involved in that argument.”
“I understand why so many Americans do wish that he could run for a third term, because he’s accomplishing so much in this first 100 days that they wish it could go on for much longer,” Johnson continued in his response to the reporter Tuesday.
“But I think he recognizes the constitutional limitations, and I’m not sure that there’s a move about to amend the Constitution,” Johnson added.
