A newly introduced constitutional amendment that would allow President Donald Trump to be elected to a third term in the White House faces very long odds — at best — of getting approved, a Harvard Law School professor said Friday.
The professor, Stephen Sachs, said the math and politics of such a proposal are almost certain to doom it.
Rep. Andy Ogles, a Tennessee Republican, on Thursday introduced a House resolution calling for the change to the U.S. Constitution, whose 22nd Amendment currently limits presidents to two elected terms.
Ogles’ proposed tweak was tailor-made for his fellow Republican Trump because it would allow presidents to be elected for a third term only if their first two terms were nonconsecutive.
Trump is the only currently living president to have been elected to nonconsecutive terms.
Despite the high constitutional bar to being elected to a third term, Trump has hinted about potentially seeking one….
Sachs told CNBC it is “very hard” to pass any amendment to the Constitution.
“Under Article V of the Constitution, both the House and the Senate have to approve an amendment proposal by a two-thirds vote,” Sachs noted….
It is “impossibly difficult, assuming that it would receive no or very few Democratic votes, either in Congress or in the state legislatures,” Sachs said.
“As of today, there are only 218 Republican representatives, 53 Republican senators and 28 Republican-controlled state legislatures,” Sachs said.
Ogles’ proposal has “attracted a great deal more attention than is warranted by its chances of passage,” Sachs said….