By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-12-07 16:33:42 | Updated at 2024-12-23 15:17:08
2 weeks ago
A new poll shows that a majority of Republicans support the idea of amending the Constitution to allow President Donald Trump to run for a third term as president.
However, only about a third, 29 percent, of all Americans support changing the Constitution so Trump can run again while a majority, 54 percent, of Americans oppose the suggestion.
A majority of Independents, 54 percent, oppose the idea while just 20 percent support the idea. A significant margin, 26 percent, of Independents remain undecided.
Surprisingly, even 16 percent of Democrats support the idea while 75 percent predictably do not.
The 22nd Amendment was added to the Constitution in response to President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushing aside the precedent of American presidents only running for two terms in office.
Roosevelt ran for a third and fourth term before dying in office in 1945 after winning his fourth presidential election.
The 22nd Amendment states that '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.'
The amendment was passed by Congress in 1947 and ratified by the states in 1951.
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump dances at a campaign rally
Trump has joked about running for a third term, but it would require significant bipartisan support to make it happen.
'I suspect I won't be running again, unless you do something,' Trump told members of Congress at a meeting in November who laughed. 'Unless you say, 'He's so good, we have to just figure it out.''
Rep. Dan Goldman responded to Trump's joke immediately by introducing a resolution to clarify the terms of the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution - which states a president can't serve three terms in office.
The resolution clarifies that the two-term limit for presidents applies even if the terms are not consecutive.
Former President Barack Obama also joked about running for a third term when he was in office.
'I actually think I'm a pretty good president, if I ran I would win, but I can't,' Obama joked during a speech in 2015. 'There's a lot that I'd like to do to keep America moving, but the law is the law and no one person is above the law.
Repealing a Constitutional amendment requires support from two-thirds of the House of Representatives and the Senate and three-fourths of the states would have to ratify the proposal.
Franklin D. Roosevelt ran and won four terms as president of the United States, breaking precedent that an American president only served two terms in office
The Daily Mail / J.L. Partners poll shows that despite winning the 2024 election, the American electorate is still polarized over Trump.
The poll of 1006 registered voters were asked to rank the last nine presidents in order, from best to worst.
Trump has a -15 approval rating as 45 percent placed him among the worst two presidents in modern history while only 30 percent ranked him among the top two presidents in history.
Current President Joe Biden is now viewed as the most unpopular president in modern history with a -30 rating.
