Jonathan Chait: “The Constitution is clear that he cannot run for a third term as president, and most scholars agree that running as a vice president, and then having the elected president step down, is not a valid loophole.”
“But as Trump has repeatedly demonstrated, questions of the law and the Constitution ultimately reduce to power struggles.
If you hear somebody say Trump is not allowed to do something, the first question to ask is What’s the enforcement mechanism? The courts may be likely to rule against permitting him to run as either president or vice president. But such cases are unlikely to be decided until after the Republican convention has locked in the party’s choice, forcing the courts to choose between effectively canceling the presidential election and enforcing the Twenty-Second Amendment.”“Would five justices on the Supreme Court have the guts? Would the states follow such a ruling in a white-hot atmosphere where Republicans would accuse the judicial branch of nullifying democracy? Every apparently solid assumption about the inviolability of the two-term limit gets porous upon close inspection.”