President Donald Trump continues to toy with the idea of a third term despite the U.S. Constitution’s two-term limit.
Speaking with reporters on Air Force One on October 27, President Trump was asked about Steve Bannon’s recent interview with The Economist and said he plans to push the envelope and keep Trump in office. Asked if he planned to challenge the permit in court, Trump said:
“I don’t really think about it. You know, we have very good people, but the poll numbers are the best they’ve ever been,” Trump said. But on average, his approval ratings have declined over the first 100 days, showing that while they have remained stable, they are lower than other presidents. “I would love to try it.”
He dodged a question about whether he was ruling it out, saying Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio would work together to form a strong team.
He ruled out running for vice president in 2028, which had been floated for some time.
“I’ll rule that out because it’s too cute,” he said. “I don’t think people like it. It’s too cute. It’s not right.”
Can Mr. Trump run for a third term?
Under the current Constitution, Trump cannot serve a third term. It is expressly prohibited by the 22nd Amendment.
Amending the Constitution requires a two-thirds majority vote in both houses of Congress, making it extremely difficult and rare. Each state could introduce an amendment, but that would require two-thirds of the state legislatures to convene a constitutional convention and three-quarters to ratify it.
Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election and became the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. He then lost to former President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump won the 2024 election. Mr. Trump initially sought a rematch, but Mr. Biden withdrew his bid for re-election and was replaced by former Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate. Trump’s second term as the 47th president of the United States is scheduled to run from 2025 to 2029.
President Trump says he will ‘probably’ not run for a third term
Throughout his second term as president, Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of a third term. In an interview with NBC in March, he said there are ways to make that happen, including if Vance runs for president and then cedes the role to Trump. (But on October 27, he seemed to have stopped that idea.)
President Trump recanted the idea in a May interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” saying he had no intention of running for office again.
“I say this: So many people want me to do this. I’ve never had a stronger request,” Trump said in an interview on NBC. “But as far as I know, that’s something you’re not allowed to do. I don’t know if it’s constitutional not to allow you to do that or something else.”
Then, on August 5, Trump was asked in an interview on CNBC whether he would run for a third term.
“No, probably not…probably not, but I would like to,” he said.
President Trump also regularly promotes “Trump 2028” MAGA hats to visitors to the White House. That included a meeting with Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance in the Oval Office by Democratic Congressional leaders who tried unsuccessfully to stop the government shutdown.
President Trump also suggested to reporters that Vance was “most likely” the successor to the MAGA movement, although Vance declined to discuss that possibility.
Only one president has served more than two terms
President George Washington, America’s founding father and first president, voluntarily resigned after two terms, creating an informal tradition that future presidents followed.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first and only president to break with that tradition. The country was still recovering from the Great Depression, and with the outbreak of World War II he was reelected for a third term. After leading the country through World War II, he was reelected in 1944, but died the following year.
The House’s efforts to formally limit presidential terms, now ratified as the 22nd Amendment, began two years after Roosevelt’s death.
Contributor: Zach Anderson Francesca Chambers, Riley Begin, Deborah Barfield Berry, america today
Kinsey Crowley is a Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Please contact kcrowley@gannett.com. Follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley or Bluesky (@kinseycrowley.bsky.social).
