President Trump told NBC News Sunday "there are methods" by which he could serve a third term in the White House — a highly improbable idea some MAGA allies have endorsed.
The latest: When asked aboard Air Force One about his comments to NBC that he's "not joking" about a third term, Trump said "I'm not looking at that but I'll tell you, I have had more people ask me to have a third term," according to a White House pool report.
- When reporters asked if this would be an appropriate precedent to set, Trump said: "I don't even want to talk about a third term now because no matter how you look at it, you've got a long time to go. ... We have almost four years to go and that's a long time but despite that so many people are saying you've got to run again."
Section 1
No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.
Section 2
This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.
Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon told Chris Cuomo earlier this month that he's a "firm believer" Trump will run and win the White House for a third time in 2028.
- Asked how Trump would sidestep constitutional term limits, Bannon replied, "We're working on it."
Trump has been making his feelings clear too. In an interview with NBC over the weekend, the president said he was “not joking” about seeking a third term and that there are “methods” to staying in office despite a constitutional ban on presidents serving more than two terms in office.
He has form. Shortly after his election victory last November, the president told congressional Republicans: “I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say, ‘He’s so good we’ve got to figure something else out’.”
Then, in January, during the annual House Republican retreat in Florida, he joked with speaker Mike Johnson: “Am I allowed to run again, Mike?” In February, he asked supporters at the White House: “Should I run again? You tell me.” Offhand musings about a third term in office sound less like bluster and more like a blueprint.
The safeguard of the two-term president emerged in direct response to Franklin D Roosevelt’s unprecedented four-term presidency during the Thirties and Forties. Before Roosevelt, the informal precedent set by George Washington – stepping down after two terms – had been respected by every president. Today, the 22nd amendment leaves little room for interpretation: “No person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice, and no person who has held the office of president, or acted as president, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected president shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.”
Earlier this year, Republican congressman Andy Ogles introduced a House resolution to amend it to enable a president to be elected for up to three terms. Ogles wrote: “President Trump’s decisive leadership stands in stark contrast to the chaos, suffering, and economic decline Americans have endured over the past four years.
