At a Senate Judiciary Committee nominations hearing on Wednesday, April 29, 2026, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) asked John G.E. Marck, one of President Trump's judicial nominees and the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, whether Trump is eligible to run for a third term under the Constitution. Marck replied, “I would have to review the actual wording of it.” Coons told him, “All I need to tell you is that the language of the constitutional amendment makes it clear that no, he is not eligible to run for the third term.” He then asked the other nominees, “Anybody else brave enough to say that the Constitution of the United States prevents President Trump from seeking a third term?” None of the three, Jeffrey Kuntz (Southern District of Florida), Arthur Roberts Jones (Southern District of Texas) and Michael Hendershot (Northern District of Ohio), said yes, according to a transcript published by the Washington Monthly and Common Dreams' account.
The 22nd Amendment states that “no person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice.” It was adopted after Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to third and fourth terms. The Washington Monthly's Jonathan Alter wrote that the amendment, “with 100 percent clarity, limits a president to two terms.” The four nominees, if confirmed, would serve as federal district judges.
At the same hearing, all four nominees declined to say Joe Biden won the 2020 election, using the phrase “President Biden was certified the winner.” Asked by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) whether the Capitol was attacked on January 6, Hendershot replied, “It's a matter of significant political controversy,” the Washington Monthly reported.
The exchange came as Trump continued to tease another run. On May 4, he told an audience he would be leaving the White House “eight or nine years from now,” Common Dreams reported. Joyce Vance, a former federal prosecutor and University of Alabama law professor, said Trump's declared intention to run for a third term should not be brushed off as “mere trolling.” Journalist Nick Bryant called the nominees' exchange “really chilling,” and Marianne Williamson said the nominees were “not even pretending to honor the Constitution.”
Correction (October 2, 2026): This entry previously dated the hearing to May 4-5, 2026; the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing record shows it took place on April 29, 2026, and the date has been corrected. The entry said Coons asked each nominee directly; he questioned Marck directly and then asked the remaining nominees as a group, and none answered. It said Joyce Vance warned against dismissing the nominees' refusals as “mere trolling”; her comment was about Trump's own third-term talk. Several Trump quotes cited as context (from the State of the Union, a Corpus Christi speech and an early-2026 Reuters report) the claim that the May 4 remark was made at a small-business summit, the amendment's 1951 ratification date and the claim that these nominees would rule on any third-term challenge had no source in this entry and were removed.