https://www.npr.org/2025/03/31/nx-s1-5191889/is-trump-running-for-a-third-term
Other legal experts, however, point to the last sentence of the 12th Amendment, which covers the Electoral College, as a roadblock for any twice-elected president attempting to return to the White House through the vice presidency. It says that "no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."
Still, in court, a lawyer could try to argue that being a "natural born" citizen, at least 35 years old and a resident within the U.S. for at least 14 years are the only presidential eligibility requirements specified in the Constitution, says Stephen Gillers, a professor emeritus at New York University School of Law, who proposed in 2004 that Clinton run for vice president.
"I want to make it very clear that I'm identifying an argument that Trump could make in order to get back into the White House. I'm not endorsing it," Gillers says. "But we know from experience that even if it's far-fetched and it offers the possibility of a third presidential term, Trump will make it. If his health holds up, he will make the argument he likes the job. Whether or not it succeeds in court is another matter."
Gillers posits that Trump "could make a deal" with Vance that, ahead of the 2028 election, they switch places on the Republican ticket, and if they win the White House again, Vance resigns and Trump becomes president.
To avoid any debate about whether the 12th Amendment forbids presidential electors from choosing a twice-elected president as vice president, Gillers says there could be a similar arrangement in which Trump does not run on the winning Republican ticket but, after the newly elected vice president resigns, becomes vice president with congressional approval.
"It is not implausible. And just the existence of the possibility of it in the next four years gives Trump power that enhances his position," Gillers says. "The members of Congress in 2027 will know that they're not dealing with a lame duck necessarily because Trump could still hold out, through 2027 and 2028, the possibility of his return to power and the power that that possibility gives him — to get Congress to bend to his will."