Scholars and Lawyers Disagree on Whether Trump Would Be Eligible For Vice President in 2028

Let's assume for a second that Donald Trump wins his second term as President of the United States in 2024.

Four years later, President Trump is still very popular and wants to remain in the White House.

The 22nd Amendment forbids anybody from serving more than two full terms as President. There is practically zero chance that this Amendment would be repealed over the four years that President Trump serves his second term.

This raises an interesting possibility - could Trump serve as the Vice President? What if there was a Vance/Trump ticket in 2028 - could this happen?

The answer is not the resounding "no" that some seem to think it is - in fact, constitutional scholars and lawyers disagree on whether or not a two-term President would be barred from serving as Vice President.

In fact, both parties have mused about the possibility of having a former President serve as Vice President.

In 1960 and 1964, Dwight Eisenhowever openly teased the possibility of serving as Vice President, despite having served as President between 1953 and 1961.

Bill Clinton is thought to have given consideration to serving as Vice President as well - remember the talk of a Clinton/Clinton ticket in 2016? At the time, Democratic supporters seemed enthused about the idea, while Republicans threatened to sue.

Now, the very real possibility of Trump serving as Vice President in 2028 needs to be contemplated.

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The disagreement over the possibility of Donald Trump serving as Vice President in 2028 comes down to three clauses:

1. Article II, Section I, Clause 5 of the original Constitution which lays out the eligibility to serve as President

2. The 12th Amendment, which includes the line: "No person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States".

3. The 22nd Amendment, which contains the line: "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 President more than once".

For the people who DON'T think that a two-term President can serve as Vice President, the argument is fairly simple: the 22nd Amendment makes them ineligible to serve as President, and therefore they can't serve as Vice President either, based on Article II, Section I, Clause 5 of the Constitution.

But hold up, the other side says - they are still constitutionally eligible to serve as President based on the original Constitution. Here are the criteria to be considered constitutionally eligible:

"No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States."

The 22nd Amendment, they point out, doesn't specifically mention the Vice Presidency, only the Presidency:

"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. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term."

These lawyers and scholars argue that President Trump, having served two terms as President, could still serve as Vice President. Why? The 22nd Amendment doesn't disqualify him from serving as Vice President, and he still remains constitutionally eligible to serve as President of the country, based on Article II, Section I, Clause 5.

This is where the crux of any argument would lie: just because Donald Trump can't be elected to the office of President after serving two terms as leader of the free world, does this make him ineligible as well, or does he still satisfy the eligibility requirements?

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There is a very good chance that the US Supreme Court will be answering this question in the future.

For more on the arguments FOR someone like Donald Trump possibly running for Vice President after having served two terms as President, check out this paper from the University of Georgia School of Law titled "Two-Time Presidents and the Vice_Presidency".


Filed under: General Knowledge