LONDON: The majority of Americans believe that current US President Donald Trump should not be allowed to run for the nation’s highest of...
LONDON: The majority of Americans believe that current US President Donald Trump should not be allowed to run for the nation’s highest office in 2028, according to a joint poll conducted by the British pollster YouGov and The Economist magazine.
As many as 68% of the survey’s participants oppose the idea of Trump seeking a third presidential term, and only 20% support it. Meanwhile, the majority of those polled (56%) are sure that the current US leader will try to run in the next election, with 28% of respondents thinking otherwise.
According to the poll’s results, current US Vice President JD Vance and his Democratic predecessor Kamala Harris are seen as the main presidential contenders. A total of 69% of surveyed Republicans supported Vance’s candidacy. Next came Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (42%) and the current US president’s son, Donald Trump Jr. (39%). As for the Democratic camp, Harris (58%) was the top pick, followed by former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (39%) and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (38%).
The respondents largely don’t approve of the activities of the parties they support (37% among Republicans and 33% among Democrats). The shares of those who approve the two parties’ activities stand at 14% and 5% respectively. However, those polled believe that the GOP is more united than their opponents (53% compared to 23%).
The poll, which involved over 1,600 people across the US, was conducted between March 30 and April 1. The margin of error does not exceed 3.3 percentage points.
Trump’s potential third term
Trump earlier told NBC News that he was "not joking" about running for a third term, although the White House press pool reported later that he would like to refrain from discussing the issue for the time being.
The 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution, adopted in 1951, says that "no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice." NBC News clarified earlier that there were two ways to change the constitution in order to provide Trump with legal grounds to seek a third term. The first option would require a two-thirds majority vote in the congress. In the second scenario, two-thirds of US states (34 out of 50) could call a constitutional convention where amendments would be proposed. Both options also stipulate that 38 out of the 50 states would need to ratify the amendments. According to NBC News, given that Republicans have a clear majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, the convention option looks the most realistic.
-News Feed
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