In an eleventh-hour attempt to present himself as a reformer, Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he now favors Congressional term limits. Though the president of the United States has no formal role at all in the constitutional amendment process, Trump pledged that if elected, he will “drain the swamp in Washington, D.C.” and push to change the constitution to limit people to six years in the U.S. House and 12 years in the Senate.
Trump, who as recently as 2010 blasted the two-term limit on New York City mayors as “a terrible idea,” said Tuesday that such a Congressional limit would bring “new voices” into the system.
But several of his top supporters would be among those old voices pushed out by such a plan. Trump’s running mate, Gov. Mike Pence (R-IN), served in the U.S. House from 2001 to 2013 — double the maximum allowed under Trump’s proposed cap.
Jeff Sessions (R-AL), one of Trump’s top surrogates on immigration, has served in the U.S. Senate since 1997 and was re-elected in 2014 to a fourth six-year term. Trump has called him “Senate’s indispensable man and the gold standard,” but under his proposal, Sessions would have been forced out at the end of 2008.
Trump’s website also boasts of endorsements from Michael Conaway of Texas and Tom Price of Georgia (currently in their sixth terms); Jeb Hensarling of Texas and Candice Miller of Michigan (currently in their seventh terms); Jeff Miller of Florida (currently in his eighth term); and Steve Chabot of Ohio and Pete Sessions of Texas (currently in their tenth terms). Top Trump surrogate Newt Gingrich served 10 terms in the House. And Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, whose support Trump also touts, is in his fifteenth term, having been first elected during the Reagan administration.
The constitution, of course, has a built in term-limit option for both U.S. representatives and senators: elections. Voters who believe experience in Congress disqualifies a candidate can simply vote against incumbents.
If Trump had really wanted to see that happen, perhaps he should not have donated thousands of dollars to help re-elect Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina (in Congress since 1995), John Cornyn of Texas (in the Senate since 2002), and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky (in the Senate since 1985).