I Beg Your Pardon, Could Trump Be “President for Life”?

President Trump has raised the specter of two dangerous warps to the U.S. Constitution: abuse of the pardon power, and the suggestion that he could be president for life.

The first problem looks more serious for now. There is no limit on the president’s pardon powers. Under Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution states that the president “shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States.” President Trump has turned this power into a political device. He pardoned Sheriff Joe Arpaio and now has pardoned Scooter Libby. He has also hinted at pardoning anyone convicted by the Mueller investigation. (The president cannot be indicted or convicted of a crime while in office, so he cannot pardon himself.)

What does this mean for the future? Possibly, an amendment to limit this power (other constitutions require a recommendation for pardon from government ministers). English monarchs were prone to abuse this power, as noted by Prof. David Gray Adler: “the pardon was not so much an act of grace as it was a tool of pecuniary and political aggrandizement. From the outset, the pardon was abused for personal gain.” Parliament has, from time to time, limited the pardon power.

But lest you dismiss the president-for-life line from President Trump, it probably wasn’t a joke. In early March, upon hearing that China’s President Xi engineered a constitutional coup that made him “president for life,” President Trump "joked", “I think it’s great.” (See picture.)

But wait, you say—he can’t do that because the 22nd Amendment limits a president to two terms or ten years.

True, but this does not unambiguously block his path to a longer reign in office. 
In 1804, the 12^th Amendment was enacted to provide the current form of electing a president and vice president. The 22^nd Amendment (ratified in 1951) would bar President Trump from running for a third term or serving more than 10 years.

That limit does not apply to a vice president. Now suppose after two terms President Trump runs for vice president behind a pliable puppet presidential nominee. After the election, if the puppet president resigned, Trump would become president.
The point is that these two amendments, enacted about 150 years apart, allow this significant loophole. Only a despotic president could contemplate being president for life. But in this bizarre scenario, Trump would be serving the term of the elected president-- someone other than him.

Anyway, you say, such a thing would never happen! 

A version of it did take place-- in Russia. Reaching his two-term limit in 2007, President Putin announced that Dmitri Medvedev was his preferred successor. Medvedev served out his term, and supported Putin for president—and Putin thereby circumvented the two term ban (there is no ten year limit in Russia). 

With some adaptations here and there, Trump could run the table on the 22^nd Amendment and serve beyond the constitutional limit.