Why It May Be Impossible to Disqualify Trump From the Presidency
The crucial question: Does the “disqualification” language in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment apply to a candidate seeking the presidency?
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he leaves a campaign event in Waterloo, Iowa, on Dec. 19, 2023. Scott Olson/Getty Images
Can former President Donald Trump be disqualified from another presidential term? The answer to that question partly hinges on the answer to this one: Does the “disqualification” language in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment apply to a candidate seeking the presidency?
Rob Natelson
Author
Robert G. Natelson, a former constitutional law professor who is senior fellow in constitutional jurisprudence at the Independence Institute in Denver, authored “The Original Constitution” (4th ed., 2025). He is a contributor to The Heritage Foundation’s “Heritage Guide to the Constitution.” He also researched and wrote the scholarly article “Virgil and the Constitution,” whose publication is pending in Regent University Law Review.
