The U.S. Constitution is the legal blueprint for the United States. Starting with the Bill of Rights, or the first 10 amendments, the Constitution was ratified in 1787, and Article II, Section 1 of the document (according to The National Constitution Center) provides guidelines for who can legally serve as president of the United States. These rules are airtight and also simple and straight to the point. The only qualifications for “Office of the President” are: The individual must be a natural-born U.S. citizen, they have to have been a legal resident of the U.S. for at least 14 years, and they have to be 35 years of age or older.
And that’s it. There are few other passages in the Constitution where limitations are placed on who can and cannot be president. There’s no federal law banning those convicted of crimes from holding the highest elected office in the land, so 34-time convicted felon Donald Trump remains eligible for the presidency because he was born in the U.S. (in Queens, New York), has resided in the country for well more than 14 years, and he’s just shy of 78 years old as of this writing.
Felons can and do run for president. Across the nation’s 200-plus-year history, many individuals with a criminal record declared their candidacy, including 1920 Socialist Party nominee Eugene V. Debs, who campaigned while serving a prison sentence for encouraging draft dodging.
