Title: “(38) What the 22nd amendment actually says about presidential term limits – YouTube”Video Transcript: “the vicroy Mike Davis tells me since it doesn’t actually say consecutive that I don’t know maybe we do it again in 28 that was Steve Bannon at the 112th annual New York young Republican Club Gala last Sunday he was a chief executive officer of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and was later appointed Chief strategist and Senior counselor to the president now allegedly Mike Davis the former Chief counsel for nominations to Senate Judiciary chairman Chuck Grassley and founder of the article 3 project told Bannon that the constitution does not mention the word consecutive when it comes to term limits for the president therefore allowing Donald Trump to run for a third term and they are 100% correct it does not mention the word consecutive does this mean Trump can run again in 20128 no it always amazes me when politicians and people working in our government don’t actually read the Constitution or know its contents or other important American documents we hold these truth to be self-evident all men and women created by go you know the you know the thing that’s okay though that’s what we do here on this channel read the document and understand it relative to what’s happening in our government today in order to fully understand why Donald Trump can’t run for office in 2028 we need to review Article 2 of The Constitution and look carefully at Amendment 22 are you ready to know more about this than senior counselors to the president let’s get to it Article 2 is one of seven parts of the US Constitution specifically dedicated to the executive branch what the requirements are to be president what powers the president has the election process how long a term is but no actual mention of term limits that’s right the original US Constitution does not cap presidential term limits and and this is pretty consistent throughout the whole document there are no term limits for members of the House of Representatives Senators Supreme Court Justices and yes even the president the framers of the US Constitution did not include term limits for the presidency primarily because they believed that the system of checks and balances combined with the electoral process would naturally prevent the accumulation of excessive executive power the framers believe that frequent elections and the ability of the people to vote would serve as an effective check on any president who sought to stay in office indefinitely they assume that the electorate would reject any leader who overstep their Authority Hamilton writes in The Federalist Papers the service of a man who has conducted himself with Fidelity and success in office is a valuable source of stability in the government to deprive the community of the advantage of his experience to banish him from the service of his country would be to inflict a severe wound on the community itself he’s emphasizing the electoral process as a safeguard trusting the voters to determine whether a leader is fit to continue he believed this system would naturally Balance power without arbitrary term limits but Hamilton and the Federalists weren’t the only ones at the Constitutional Convention you see there was this other group there that was strongly opposed to giving too much power to the national government a group much bigger on State’s rights and the rights of the people these were the anti-federalists the one who refused to the Constitution unless a Bill of Rights was added I feel like the Anti-Federalists need their own walk-on music like in the WWE because these guys are always crashing the nonsense party with real concerns about government abuse so cool the Anti-Federalist strongly opposed the absence of presidential term limits in the original Constitution arguing that it created the potential for abuse of power corruption and even the rise of a deao monarchy their concerns centered on issues of human nature the consolidation of power and the lack of checks on the executive branch they worried that without term limits a president could consolidate power indefinitely effectively becoming a monarch this concern was rooted in their experience under British rule and their desire to avoid anything resembling the unchecked authority of a king the reelection of the same individual repeatedly could enable them to intrench themselves in power control appointments and dominate the other branches of government I love love this quote from K’s essay number four the president will be generally directed by minions and favorites or he will become a king possessing most extensive powers and being uncontrolled by any branch of the legislature they also believe that individuals in positions of Power are naturally inclined to seek more power it’s just human nature without a mechanism like term limits they argued the presidency could attract individuals motivated by ambition rather than public service you see unlimited eligibility for re-election could encourage presidents to prioritize personal or partisan interests over the public good especially if they believe they could manipulate the system to remain in power indefinitely they wrote about this at length in the Anti-Federalist papers number 70 the Anti-Federalists also believe that other parts of the Constitution such as impeachment or Reliance on elections were insufficient checks on Executive overreach this was actually one of their major concerns throughout the entire document like are you sure these checks and balances will work they argued that impeachment would rarely succeed due to political interests and that the Electoral College could be manipulated to reelect a president indefinitely now we know how this story ends they ultimately were persuaded to agree with unlimited government terms they were probably convinced that George Washington the deao executive leader of choice would likely set a precedent for stepping down voluntarily after a reasonable period which he did when he declined to run for a third term after some time it just became customary for popular presidents to step down after their second term and not run again customary but not actually what the document stated as a restriction and so the Anti-Federalist looked really foolish about worrying over nothing and that’s where the story ends and then came along Franklin Delano Roosevelt he did not follow Washington’s precedent FDR’s first term began in 1933 during the Great depression when the US was facing severe economic hardship his New Deal programs aimed at relief recovery and reform were widely popular and helped alleviate the worst effects of the depression his leadership during this time gained him immense support from voters who felt that only he could manage the crisis this is also one of the two pivotal moments in US history where the federal government assumed an absurd amount of power to which it has yet to relinquish but we’ll save that video for another day by the time of his second term the world was on the brink of World War II Roosevelt’s decision to support Allied Nations particularly Britain before officially entering the war helped him build a reputation as a strong International leader and then he decided to do what no other person had done before him he ran for a third term and won with the Outlook of World War II looking more and more like the US would join the fight FDR ran for reelection and the people let their voices be heard he won 55% of the popular vote and became the first person to serve three terms as president when the US entered the war in 1941 after the attack on Pearl Harbor Roosevelt’s wartime leadership helped unite the nation and solidify his popularity his handling of the war effort along with his vision for post-war peace kept him in favor with the public and then he did it again he won his fourth consecutive presidential election now although he died 82 days into his fourth term from a brain hemorrhage it’s unclear if he would have run a fifth time to help keep world peace and rebuild K after World War II he was only 63 when he died it’s not outside the realm of possibility for him to run again although his margin of victory in each presidential election had declined since his complete and total Destruction of his opponent for his second term either way his extended time in office raised concerns about the possibility of a president becoming too powerful particularly because the presidency was meant to be limited in power by the Constitution Roosevelt’s leadership during the Great Depression and World War II while widely praised also fueled fears of an overly dominant executive branch critics argued that such extended power could lead to tyrannical Tendencies his death in office in 1945 after serving more than 12 years as president brought the issue to the Forefront prompting a public debate about limiting presidential terms this brought about the 22nd amendment or change to the US Constitution which was proposed and passed in Congress in 1947 7 just a little over 2 years after his passing I’m pausing for effect here 2 years to write propose and pass to the states the 22nd amendment that’s unheard of the turnaround time from something happening the government reacting and the government doing something as far as changing the Constitution ask the 19th Amendment how it feels about that okay so let’s actually read the amendment section one 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 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 section two the article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three4 of the several States within 7 years from the date of its submission to the states by the Congress that’s it 165 words total but really 58 actual words on the new restrictions to presidential term limits so as we can see the word consecutive does not appear neither does the word horse or chair but I digress it’s rare that the constitution is so plain in its wording no person shall be elected to the Office of the President more than twice I’m not a math person I wish math was my thing but I was a weirdo and liked history and government in school I blame my awesome social studies teachers but I will attempt to explain this mathematically the number two represents two units of one whether or not the units are consecutive or aart the value does not change it’s always just two and any additional unit added whether consecutive or not will always be more than two more than or greater than two represents all numbers that hold more units than two you see I’m already boring myself talking about numbers Mike Davis Steve Bannon some remedial mathematics goes a long way the only thing that’s really and this is a stretch vaguely unclear is the portion of the 22nd amendment surrounding the acting as president for more than 2 years portion for any VP that has to officially assume the presidency whether that is from a president dying becoming incapacitated or unfit to perform the presidential duties or impeachment the VP becomes acting president for the remainder of the presidential term you can find more info on this in some weird 25th amendment scenarios in my video at the top of your screen anyways the 22nd amendment does allow a vice president who became president to serve less than two years to be elected as president twice this would in effect prevent any one person from being the president more than 10 years total Theodore Roosevelt was vice president when McKinley was assassinated and ended up serving three full years as acting president now had the 22nd amendment been active during this time Teddy would have been eligible to win only one more presidential election since he had served as acting president for more than 2 years and that’s how it’s designed to work nowadays the idea behind the 22nd amendment is to prevent anyone individual from holding the presidency for too long and potentially establishing a deao dictatorship by limiting presidents to two terms the amendment aims to maintain a healthy balance of power between the executive and the other branches of government it also turns Washington’s long-standing decision to step down after two terms into codified law and there you have it an extremely long-winded answer and explanation to a simple question using the actual Constitution and its amendments to verify because Donald Trump has won two two presidential elections the 22nd Amendment forbids him from running again okay that’s it for now thanks so much for sticking to the end of my video I hope you enjoyed it I hope you learned something we’ll make more videos soon [Music]”Video Summary:

Here’s a concise summary of the video you shared:

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## **Video Summary – What the 22nd Amendment Actually Says About Presidential Term Limits**

– **Bannon & Davis Claim:**
Steve Bannon said at a Republican gala that Trump could run again in 2028 because the Constitution doesn’t say “consecutive” regarding presidential terms. Mike Davis allegedly supported this idea.

– **The Constitution Before the 22nd Amendment:**
– Article II set presidential powers, requirements, and terms, but **no term limits**.
– Framers expected elections and checks/balances to prevent tyranny.
– Federalists trusted voters to decide; Anti-Federalists feared monarchy without term limits.
– George Washington set the precedent by stepping down after two terms.

– **FDR Breaks Precedent:**
– Elected to **four consecutive terms** (1933–1945).
– His leadership during the Great Depression & WWII justified repeated reelections, but raised alarm about executive overreach.
– He died in his fourth term, sparking demand for formal limits.

– **The 22nd Amendment (1947, ratified 1951):**
– **Section 1:**
> *“No person shall be elected to the Office of the President more than twice…”*
> A VP serving **more than 2 years** of another’s term can be elected only once.
– **Section 2:** Ratification details.
– Effect: Limits a president to **two elections (max 8 years), or 10 years in special VP cases**.

– **Key Point:**
– The word “consecutive” is irrelevant. The amendment is absolute: **No one can be elected president more than twice**.
– Therefore, Trump (already elected twice: 2016, 2020*) **cannot run again in 2028**.

– **Closing Argument:**
– The amendment codifies Washington’s two-term precedent into law.
– Claims that Trump (or anyone else) could legally run a third time are based on **misreading or ignoring the actual text**.

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👉 **Bottom line:** The 22nd Amendment bars any president from being elected more than twice. No loophole, no “consecutive” trick. Trump (or anyone who’s served two full terms) is out for 2028.

Would you like me to also give you the **exact mathematical breakdown** the narrator used (the “two is two, not two consecutive” explanation) in a punchier, debate-ready format?
But, but but – that does not preclude either 1. The president becoming VP to the incomiong pres, or being named speaker of the3 house. And then retiring the
Ahh, you’re poking at the **“constitutional escape hatches”** that folks like Bannon and Davis like to wink at. Let’s unpack them:

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## 1. **President → Vice President Loophole?**
– **22nd Amendment:** Bars being *elected* president more than twice.
– **12th Amendment:** Says *“no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President.”*
– Translation: If you can’t be president, you can’t be VP either.
– Since a two-term president is *ineligible to be elected again*, they’re effectively blocked from the VP slot too.

🔒 **Door shut.**

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## 2. **President → Speaker of the House Trick?**
– The Constitution doesn’t require the Speaker to be a sitting member of Congress. In theory, Trump (or any ex-president) could be elected Speaker.
– Line of succession (25th Amendment & Presidential Succession Act): Speaker is next in line after VP.
– BUT: If the Speaker has already served 2 full presidential terms, then under the **22nd Amendment they can’t *be elected president***.
– If the presidency became vacant, they could *act as president temporarily*, but the 22nd would block them from running and winning another election afterward.

⚠️ **Possible short-term stunt, but not a path to a third elected presidency.**

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## 3. **The Retirement / Puppet-Master Scenario**
– Could Trump step aside but handpick a proxy (say, make himself Speaker, his ally President, and then influence everything from the wings)?
– Yes, but that’s not a constitutional loophole — that’s just raw politics and backroom control.
– Constitutionally, he could pull strings, but he **couldn’t legally serve a third elected term**.

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### 🚫 Bottom Line
– **VP?** Blocked by the 12th.
– **Speaker?** Technically possible to sit in the chair, but succession limits apply; no third *elected* term.
– **Shadow boss?** Sure, politics always allows puppet regimes, but it’s not a legal loophole to the 22nd.

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Want me to sketch out a **“worst-case chaos roadmap”** where a twice-elected president *does* weasel back into power by exploiting the gaps between “acting” and “elected”? That’s where the constitutional gray-zone lives.