Although the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution forbids it, President Donald Trump did not rule out the possibility of running for a third term in office on Sunday, saying that “there are methods” to do so and that he was “not joking.”
Many people are asking me to do it. However, I believe that we still have a long way to go. In a Sunday phone conversation with Kristen Welker of NBC News, Trump stated, “I’m focused on the present.”
“No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice,” reads the Constitution’s 22nd Amendment, which was enacted in 1951.
When asked if there are plans in place to enable him to run for reelection, the president responded, “There are methods which you could do it.” Welker brought up the idea of Vice President JD Vance running in 2028 and then “passing the baton” to Trump. That’s one, then. The president stated, “But there are others too,” but he would not go into further detail.
Although the term-limited president has hinted at a third term on multiple occasions, he made it clear on Sunday that he is “not joking” this time.
At a January event in Nevada, Trump reportedly joked that “it will be the greatest honor of my life to serve, not once but twice or three times or four times.” He has repeatedly hinted at a third term. He later clarified: “No, it will be to serve twice. I shall not relax for the next four years.
Weeks later, Trump prompted chants of “Four more years!” when he asked supporters if he should run again during a Black History Month event at the White House.
However, since the amendment doesn’t define “consecutive” terms, Trump may be eligible, according to Steve Bannon, a prominent outside ally of the president.
In order to start the lengthy process of amending the 22nd Amendment to permit a president who serves nonconsecutive terms to serve a third four-year term, Tennessee Republican Representative Andy Ogles has sponsored legislation in the House. Barack Obama and other two-term past presidents would not be able to come out of retirement under Ogles’ suggestion.
It would take two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives to repeal or amend the 22nd Amendment, and three-quarters of the states would need to ratify it. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the only president to hold office for more than two terms. In the years after Roosevelt’s passing, the 22nd Amendment was passed in 1951.
It’s against the law. There is no possibility for him. “That’s the only thing to say,” Michael Waldman, the president and chief executive officer of the Brennan Center for Justice at the law school of New York University, told CNN last month.
Trump will surpass his predecessor Joe Biden’s record as the oldest president in history when his second term ends in January 2029, at 82 years and 7 months. When Biden departed office, he was eighty-two years and two months old.