Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) sparked a firestorm on Thursday when he suggested that Donald Trump might run for a third term as president. His comments came during a discussion about a proposed ban on stock trading by public officials and quickly set off fierce backlash on social media.
The U.S. Constitution’s 22nd Amendment clearly limits presidents to two terms. Still, the idea of Trump running for a third term has been floated by Trump himself and some of his supporters before.
In March, Trump told NBC News, “there were ‘methods [by] which you could do it,'” and added, “I’m not joking” about the possibility.
During a Fox Business interview about the stock trading ban, Paul said:
“I think we’re going to discourage good people, successful people, from holding office. Part of the bill, I do believe, would forbid the president immediately from buying and selling stocks, and it would exempt him from the divestiture part.”
He added, “Future presidents wouldn’t be allowed to own things, so Donald Trump or the next president, which, you know, or some say he might run for a third term… But he would be forced to divest everything. He would have to sell all of his possessions.”
Paul explained, “I think Donald Trump’s got a complicated, probably, financial empire, and a lot of people just wouldn’t want to sell or get involved with all of that. You also don’t want to sell it during a downturn. There’s a lot of reasons, what would discourage successful people, and I frankly think that some of the success of Donald Trump being president is that he was used to the world of high finance, used to making deals with large amounts of money, and I don’t think we want to discourage people like that from holding office.”
The internet quickly responded with criticism.
Dartmouth political scientist Brendan Nyhan called it “Chilling to see a senator floating the third term idea.”
University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Mark Copelovitch said: “Signs you might be a far right authoritarian party (#3191): Casual normalization by a sitting Senator of a ‘third term.'”
Former Republican Rep. Joe Walsh tweeted, “The only reason Trump has succeeded is because he’s gotten way too many Americans to normalize his corrupt, lawless, dishonest, and unconstitutional behavior.”
Columbia University political scientist Robert Y. Shapiro told Newsweek, “The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution and the 12th Amendment make it sufficiently legally clear that he can serve no more than two terms. The harm here is any attempt to assert further authoritarian power… and to thereby undermine American constitutional democracy.”
Political analyst Craig Agranoff said Paul’s comment “subtly tests the boundaries of the 22nd Amendment” and shows a trend in some Republican circles treating constitutional limits as flexible.
He added, “Among MAGA supporters, many take this seriously. This rhetoric is dangerous because it normalizes authoritarian tendencies and risks instability if unchecked.”
The group Republicans Against Trump summed it up on X: “Rand Paul on voting against the stock trading ban: We discourage successful people from holding office… If Trump were the next president, and some say he might run for a 3rd term, he would be forced to divest everything HE CAN’T RUN FOR A THIRD TERM.”
Watch Pauls remarks in the video below from Fox News:
