West Palm Beach, Florida – President Donald Trump said Sunday that “I’m not joking” about seeking a third term, the clearest indication that he is considering ways to overcome a constitutional barrier to continuing to lead the country after his second term ends in early 2029.
“There are ways to do it,” Trump said in a phone interview with NBC News from his private club, Mar-a-Lago.
He later told reporters on Air Force One flying from Florida to Washington that “I have had more people ask me for a third term, which in a way is a fourth term because the other election, the 2020 election, was totally rigged.” Trump lost the election to Democrat Joe Biden.
Still, he said: “I don’t want to talk about a third term now because no matter how you look at it, we’ve got a long time to go.”
The 22nd Amendment, added to the Constitution in 1951 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected four times in a row, states that “no person shall be elected to the office of President more than twice.”
Any attempt to stay in office would be legally suspect, and it is unclear how seriously Trump would take the idea. The comments, however, were an extraordinary reflection of a president’s desire to maintain power after violating democratic traditions four years ago when he attempted to overturn his election loss to Biden.
“This is yet another escalation in his clear effort to take over the government and dismantle our democracy,” said Rep. Daniel Goldman, a New York Democrat who led Trump’s first impeachment. “If Congressional Republicans believe in the Constitution, they will go on the record opposing Trump’s ambitions for a third term.”
During a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference last month, Steve Bannon, a former Trump strategist and host of the right-wing “War Room” podcast, urged the president to run again.
“We want Trump in ’28,” he explained.
Kayla Thompson, a 30-year-old former paralegal from Wisconsin, said she would “absolutely” like Trump to serve another term.
“America needs him. America is going in the right direction, and if he doesn’t do it, we’re probably going backwards,” said Thompson, who was in Green Bay on Sunday for a state Supreme Court race.
Jeremy Paul, a constitutional law professor at Northeastern University in Boston, stated that “there are no credible legal arguments for him to run for a third term.”
NBC’s Kristen Welker asked Trump if one possible path to a third term was for Vice President JD Vance to run for the top job and “then pass the baton to you.”
“That’s one,” Trump replied. “There are others, too. “There are others.”
“Can you tell me another?” Welker asked.
“No,” Trump responded.
The Associated Press requested comment from Vance’s office, which did not respond immediately.
Derek Muller, a professor of election law at Notre Dame, pointed out that the 12th Amendment, ratified in 1804, states that “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.”
According to Muller, if Trump is not eligible to run for president again due to the 22nd Amendment, he is also ineligible to run for vice president.
“I don’t think there’s any ‘one weird trick’ to getting around presidential term limits,” Muller told CNN.
In addition, seeking a third term would necessitate extraordinary cooperation from federal and state officials, not to mention the courts and voters themselves.
He suggested that Trump is considering a third term for political reasons, to “show as much strength as possible.”
“A lame-duck president like Donald Trump has every incentive in the world to make it seem like he’s not a lame duck,” according to him.
Trump, who would be 82 at the end of his second term, was asked if he wanted to continue serving in “the toughest job in the country” at that time.
“Well, I like working,” the president explained.
Trump suggested that Americans would support a third term due to his popularity. He falsely claimed to have “the highest poll numbers of any Republican for the last 100 years.”
According to Gallup data, President George W. Bush received a 90% approval rating following the 9/11 attacks. His father, President George H.W. Bush, received an 89% rating following the Gulf War in 1991.
Trump has averaged 47% in Gallup polls during his second term, despite claiming to be “in the high 70s in many polls, in the real polls.”
Trump has previously mused about serving more than two terms, usually with jokes to friendly audiences.
“Am I allowed to run again?” he asked at a House Republican retreat in January.
Representatives for the congressional leadership — House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York — did not respond to AP requests for comment.
