President Trump signaled support on Monday for congressional term limits, saying he discussed the issue with a group of first-term lawmakers.
“I recently had a terrific meeting with a bipartisan group of freshman lawmakers who feel very strongly in favor of Congressional term limits,” Trump tweeted. “I gave them my full support and endorsement for their efforts.”
{mosads}Monday is not the first time Trump has voiced support for congressional term limits. While some conservative lawmakers back the idea, the proposal has not gained traction with GOP leaders.
“I would say we have term limits now. They’re called elections. And it will not be on the agenda in the Senate,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said during a press conference shortly after the 2016 election.
Freshman Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), who attended the meeting at the White House, said last week a bipartisan group of freshman House members plan to combine bills together in an attempt to implement a change.
“I think that would be a complete paradigm shift – so a lot of work ahead, but this was a really interesting moment. I mean 85 percent of the American people support term limits,” he said in a Twitter video. “I think we’ve got to get at that source of the problem, which is people only care about their reelection and getting reelected [more] than doing the work of the people.”
The Wisconsin Republican introduced a joint resolution that would add a constitutional amendment that would limit members of the lower chamber from serving more than six terms and senators to two terms. The change would be phased with the current class of freshman members.
Trump said during the 2016 presidential campaign that he would push for a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress.
That proposal came as part of a five-point ethics plan that he introduced amid his pledge to “drain the swamp.”
—Updated at 5:36 p.m. Juliegrace Brufke contributed.