Donald Trump added a new proposal to his recently unveiled ethics reforms package on Tuesday, promising to pursue a constitutional amendment that would impose term limits on members of Congress should he win the election on Nov. 8.
“If I’m elected president, I will push for a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress,” the Republican presidential hopeful told supporters at his afternoon rally in Colorado Springs, Colo. “Decades of failure in Washington and decades of special interest dealings must and will come to an end.”
Establishing term limits at the federal level would help “break the cycle of corruption” that has plagued Washington and “give new voices to change so that we can have a government that works again and can function properly,” Trump argued.
“The time for congressional term limits has finally arrived,” he added to applause. “Not only will it end our government corruption but it will end the economic stagnation that we are in right now — no growth.”
The policy prescriptions outlined by Trump in the last 24 hours mark the first time the GOP nominee has gone beyond criticizing the unethical conduct of government officials and lawmakers and offered substantive solutions to eliminate such behavior. The proposals fit neatly into the case he has been building against Hillary Clinton since leaked emails and newly released notes from the FBI’s investigation into her private email server raised additional questions about the process that led to the former secretary of state to escape an indictment in July.
“This is many times worse than Watergate,” Trump said Monday night at a rally in Wisconsin and again on Tuesday in Colorado Springs. “We’re going to put an end to it on Nov. 8.”
The additional ethics reforms Trump has put forward include the implementation of a 5-year ban on executive branch officials lobbying the government after they’ve left it, and a similar ban on former members of Congress and their staffs.
The billionaire has also suggested that the definition of lobbyist be changed in order to “close all loopholes that former government officials use by labeling themselves consultants and advisors when we all know they are lobbyists,” and a lifetime ban be enforced against senior executive branch officials who wish to become lobbyists on behalf of foreign governments.
Trump’s term limit proposal marks a rare instance in which he has followed in the footsteps of his predecessor and ardent critic, Mitt Romney. The former GOP nominee found himself at odds with Republican lawmakers after he said congressional term limits were “a good idea” during the 2012 election cycle.
“I would love to see term limits for congressmen and senators,” he told voters at a town hall meeting in December 2011. “We have one for the president. It’s a good idea.”
