ICYMI: As Ears Perk Up to Trump’s Desire for a Third Term, Congressman Dan Goldman in November Introduced a Resolution Reaffirming Support for the 22nd Amendment Restricting President to Two Terms
February 12, 2025
Goldman’s Prescient Resolution Finally Gaining Notice as Americans Wake Up to Trump’s Continued Desire to Remaining in Office Past 2028
Congressional Republicans Appear Poised to Support Trump’s Unconstitutional Effort
Read the Resolution Here
Washington, D.C. – As Trump continues to allude to and muse about staying in office beyond his constitutional limit of two presidential terms, reporters and everyday Americans are beginning to wake up to the fact that Trump may not be kidding after all. Back in November, Congressman Goldman saw Trump’s ‘jokes’ for what they were – trial balloons. In response, Goldman introduced a House Resolution urging his congressional colleagues to reaffirm the 22nd Amendment’s plain prohibition on any president serving beyond two elected terms in office. With Congressional Republicans now openly paving the way for Trump to run for president once more, Goldman’s urgent call for people to take Trump’s comments seriously is more relevant than ever.
Last month, Congressman Andy Ogles (TN-05) took Trump’s bait and introduced a constitutional amendment that would enable Trump to serve a third term. Ogles’ amendment is a signal that Trump’s trial ballon had been received and begun to be incorporated into the MAGA orthodoxy.
New York Times: As Trump Refers to Third Term, Democrat Wants to Leave No Constitutional Loophole
November 13, 2024
Mr. Goldman’s resolution is an early indication of how Democrats may try to hold Mr. Trump accountable and defend democratic institutions with Republicans headed toward full control of Congress and few guardrails remaining to rein him in. Introducing the measure allows Mr. Goldman to draw public attention to Mr. Trump’s statements, which he calls “anti-democratic and authoritarian.”
New York Times: Trump Muses About a Third Term, Over and Over Again
February 10, 2025
But his suggestion that he could stay in office beyond January 2029 now comes against a very different backdrop. In the first three weeks since his inauguration, Mr. Trump has sought to sweepingly expand executive power and granted the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, seemingly unfettered reach to dismantle federal agencies and to push roughly two million federal workers to consider leaving their posts.
Even when Mr. Trump presents something as a joke, the idea he suggests often becomes socialized by his supporters, both those in office and in the right-wing media. The concept then often takes on more weight, including for Mr. Trump.
New York Times: No, Trump Cannot Run for Re-election Again in 2028
February 6, 2025
Soon after Mr. Trump remarked in November that House Republicans could help pave his way to a third term, Mr. Goldman introduced a resolution to reaffirm that the 22nd Amendment applies to presidents who serve nonconsecutive terms. The measure has little chance of advancing to the House floor for a vote with the chamber under Republican control.
“How he operates is by floating trial balloons that he often claims are jokes, but he’s very serious about it,” Mr. Goldman, who was lead counsel during Mr. Trump’s first impeachment in the House, said on Bloomberg TV. “And he’s been talking about staying on past this next term for years."
NY 1: House Republican proposes change to Constitution to allow Trump to serve a third term
January 24, 2025
Following Trump’s post-election comment to the House GOP in November, Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman of New York introduced his own resolution seeking to clarify that Trump is not eligible to run again in 2028 according to the language of the Constitution. The resolution did not go anywhere in the last few weeks of the previous session of Congress.
“We are a nation of laws, not kings,” Goldman wrote on X then. “The 22nd Amendment is clear that no person can be elected President more than twice. Any attempt by Donald Trump to do so is blatantly unconstitutional, and I call on my colleagues — D or R — to stand by their oath to defend the Constitution.”
Newsweek: Bill To Let Trump Serve a Third Term Pushed by GOP Rep—'So Important'
February 3, 2025
Republican Tennessee Representative Andy Ogles told Newsmax: "I have a bill that would amend the 22nd Amendment. It has to be ratified in the House and the Senate and then by 38 of the states, three-quarters. So it's a lot of work to get it done. If this was ratified, if Trump decided to run for a third term, and if the people wanted him, he could technically or would be allowed to run and serve a third term in the context of this. In the context of this, the damage done by the Biden administration in four years, they did a decade's worth of damage. It's going to take a decade to unwind, and that's why this amendment is so important."
New York Representative Dan Goldman previously told Newsweek: "By now, Donald Trump's pattern is predictable: 'joke' about something unconstitutional or authoritarian; normalize the 'joke'; allow sycophantic Republicans to adopt the 'joke' as a serious idea until it becomes MAGA orthodoxy. Rep. Ogles has followed the playbook perfectly by proposing a constitutional amendment to allow Trump to serve a third term. While I'm grateful that he acknowledges that a third term would require a constitutional amendment, nothing Donald Trump says or does is funny."
CNBC: Constitutional amendment to allow Trump third term introduced in the House
January 23, 2024
“I am proposing an amendment to the Constitution to revise the limitations imposed by the 22nd Amendment on presidential terms,” [Rep. Andy Ogles (TN-05)] added.
Ogles’ move came three days after Trump was sworn in as president.
The resolution also comes two months after Rep. Dan Goldman, a New York Democrat, introduced a House resolution that “reaffirms that the Twenty-second Amendment applies to two terms in the aggregate as President of the United States,” and that the amendment applies to the 78-year-old Trump.
Brooklyn Eagle: Goldman: GOP proposal allowing Trump third term not a ‘joke’
January 24, 2025
“After Republican Rep. Andy Ogles (TN-05) on Thursday proposed a constitutional amendment that would allow Donald Trump to serve a third term as president, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-Western Brooklyn, lower Manhattan) warned that the out-of-left-field proposal followed a dangerous pattern. Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of staying in office beyond his legitimate second term.
“By now, Donald Trump’s pattern is predictable: ‘joke’ about something unconstitutional or authoritarian; normalize the ‘joke’; allow sycophantic Republicans to adopt the ‘joke’ as a serious idea until it becomes MAGA orthodoxy,” Goldman said in a statement Thursday, adding, “Rep. Ogles has followed the playbook perfectly.”
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Issues:Democracy and Voting Rights