Trump has joked about a third term, but we all know the 22nd amendment limits Presidents to 2 (or 2.5) terms, right? Fortunately, Trump is 78, and the odds of health getting in the way are significant, but it's also pretty probable he'll be up for it. And being who he is, want it. He may not be joking. But how could he do it?

Lurleen Wallace Hack

The simplest approach, by far, is the trick Democrats have already sucessfuly done twice for Governors. When George Wallace was termed out, his wife Lurleen ran as "Mrs. George Wallace" and won. It was explicit that George would e the real governor, power behind the office. She had no interest in the role, and died in office and George returned. This also happened in Texas with "Ma Furguson" who took the role from her husband.

Melania can't run, but he could run anybody truly loyal, particularly those with his name, including Ivanka, Eric, Lara or Don Jr. Lara's the daughter-in-law but she's being groomed, the important part is the signs would say "Trump" or even "Donald Trump." This could even be done if Donald Trump were barred from running due to the insurrection clause.

No person shall be "elected"

The 22nd amendment uses odd language. It says "No person shall be elected to the office of President more than twice." It says elected, when the other parts of the constitution which control who can run for President, all written before the 22nd, use other terms. "No person shall be eligible" if they're not a natural born citizen, and 35 years old, and resident for 14 years. No person "shall hold any office" if they have engaged in insurrection after swearing the oath.

Many have wondered, since this only bars election (presumably either by the electoral college or in congress), if a person could ascend to the office by being Vice President when the President resigns/dies/etc. The letter of the text says yes, the spirit of it says no. Some argue that since you can't run for Vice President if you are not eligible to be President, that this would block such an approach, but of course since we're presuming the 22nd only bars election here, as it says, and not eligibility, that would not help. In addition, one can also ascend from being Speaker of the House if both the Presidency and Vice Presidency are vacant, which Trump and the GOP could arrange. (The line of succession, through the Speaker, is not in the constitution but it's authorized there for Congress to define it, which they did by statue.) It is also worth noting that the Speaker of the House need not be a member of the House, only selected by it. Tradition has always had it be a house member.

Would this work? Nobody can be certain. You will find skilled jurists, all the way up to constitutional law professors, arguing both sides. This tells us that if it were tried, it would quickly be before the Supreme Court. Whatever your view of the legality of this, it doesn't matter -- only that of SCOTUS does.

Donald Trump appointed 3 of the members of that court personally. By 2029, he will probably have appointed 5 of them, and 6 is not impossible. The court can pretty much rule as it likes, but here it can choose between the letter of the constitution and the spirit, and nobody could stop them from picking either. Well, except literally the military could stop them, with guns.

A side hack -- The Republican congress could pass an amendment to the Presidential Succession Act, putting "The most recent former President" at the head of the line, before the speaker of the house. There's even a totally legitimate argument for this, since if we're in a situation where the President and VP have both been killed, it's a time where having an experienced ex-President take the job to hit the ground running in a major crisis actually would make sense. So he wouldn't even have to be Speaker. And he wouldn't be elected more than twice.

Emergency

Trump could have an emergency. In it, he could suspend the election. He could suspend all or part of the constitution. This does depend on if the military is loyal to him. This of course has happened many times in many countries in world history. It's the preferred method. Perhaps he'll declare war with Canada (something that not long ago would only be treated as a comedic proposal.) BTW, the USA would lose that war, as it did its last war with Canada in 1812, and its wars with the Taliban and the Viet Cong, but that would not stop him from declaring it to get his crisis.

Just do it

Even without suspending the constitution, he could just do it. Again, this is how it's often done. The question is who can stop him? It might mean civil war, but that's happened before, even in the USA. The recent movie "Civil War" plays this out in the background.

Amend the constitution

It seems impossible that 2/3rds of both chambers and 3/4 of the states could approve such an amendment. Don't count it out. I know one totally legal way it could be done even with the current political realities, and constitutional lawyer friends have agreed it's not crazy, it could be real.. So I'm not reproducing it here because it's possible enough we don't want to trigger it. It would get challenged, of course, but once again we might face a court with the majority of the justices personally appointed by Trump. All it needs is an argument somebody can write a defense of. And yes, it might well point to civil war, once again. That's not something that would deter Trump.

This is why the Republicans must take it on themselves to remove Trump and replace him with Vance. Whatever the many flaws of Vance, it's unlikely he would do this, and almost certain he doesn't have the political popularity to even attempt it. The real danger is Trump's powerful control of his base, the House, the Senate and SCOTUS. Nobody should have control of all of these, it's entirely against the design principles of the USA.

If SCOTUS would cooperate, Trump can be removed just with majority votes in the chambers. SCOTUS ruled last year that only congress has the power to enforce the insurrection clause in the 14th amendment. The House already impeached him for insurrection. If the Senate also declared this, it might be enough. (The President would not sign any statute of course, but the SCOTUS might declare that requiring his signature in an act removing him from office is clearly nonsensical.) To do this just requires 4 GOP senators to break with Trump. We already have seen 3 who might be willing. They won't betray their party, but they would just be putting Vance in, not doing that.