The 22nd Amendment bars presidents from a third term in office. Is it enough to stop Trump?
James Liddell,Josh Marcus,Alex Woodward,Katie Hawkinson
Monday 31 March 2025 16:22 BST
Donald Trump has once again floated the prospect of serving an unconstitutional third term, arguing that there are avenues through which he could stay in office another four years.
The president told NBC’s Kristen Welker in late March that he was “not joking” when he proposed a third term, claiming there are “methods [by] which you could do it.”
“A lot of people want me to do it,” Trump told Welker. “But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.”
This comes after the president basked in chants of “four more years” just one month into his second term while at a White House reception celebrating Black History Month.
Since early in his 2024 campaigning, Trump repeatedly mused about a third term. He has raised the idea over and over again since his first term in office.
The 22nd Amendment of the Constitution says that presidents can only serve up to two full terms (eight years). Trump has said he may feel “entitled” to more while also suggesting he doesn’t want to run again after his next term ends in January 2029.
Congressional Democrats have proposed a measure to clarify that the 22nd Amendment expressly forbids a third term in office, and 78-year-old Trump, the oldest U.S. president at the time of election in history, has at times admitted defeat to the constitutional guardrails he’s up against, despite his rhetoric.
Just days after winning the 2024 election, Trump told House Republicans: “I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say ‘He’s so good, we got to figure something else out.’”
At the House Republicans’ annual retreat in Florida, he joked about whether he was allowed to run again. Days later at a Las Vegas rally, he pondered serving “not once, but twice... or three or four times.”
At a prayer breakfast at the Washington Hilton on February 6, Trump mulled another four years, “despite the fact that they say I can’t run again.”
“You know, FDR 16 years — almost 16 years — he was four terms. I don’t know, are we going to be considered three-term? Or two-term?” he told a National Rifle Association convention in May last year, referencing Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Trump also referred to himself as a “king” and quoted Napolean Bonaparte in a social media post on February 15, unsubtly stating that he was above the law.
Trump’s former White House strategist Steve Bannon similarly said leaders like him come along once or twice in history while on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February.
“We want Trump in ‘28... We want Trump! We Want Trump!,” Bannon said before later gesturing, what critics say, a salute that resembled a Sieg Heil.
It wasn’t just the most recent election cycle where Trump seemingly eyed a third term in office.
“We’re going to win four more years in the White House,” he said in 2022. “And then after that, we’ll negotiate, right? Because we’re probably — based on the way we were treated — we are probably entitled to another four after that.”
In 2018, he praised Chinese President Xi Jinping’s potential lifetime term in office as “great,” saying “maybe we’ll give that a shot someday.”
By 2020, while campaigning for reelection in Reno, Nevada, Trump told his followers that he was going to win the state and “win four more years in the White House,” before adding: “We’re probably – based on the way we were treated – we’re probably entitled to another four after that.”
When Trump was pressed on whether he believes he can serve a third term, the president said he doesn’t want one.
“I wouldn’t be in favor of it. I wouldn’t be in favor of a challenge [to the 22nd Amendment]. Not for me,” Trump told TIME in April last year. “I wouldn’t be in favor of it at all. I intend to serve four years and do a great job.”
The 32nd U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four terms in office helped inspire the 22nd Amendment. Ratified in 1951, the amendment came after Roosevelt had been elected four consecutive times, from 1932 to 1944. He died in office in April 1945, shortly into his fourth term.
The amendment states that presidents can serve a maximum of two terms.
If a vice president becomes president during the term of their predecessor, which has occurred nine times in U.S. history due to death or resignation, they can still serve two full terms as long as they serve less than half of their predecessor’s remaining term.
Before Roosevelt, whose time in office coincided with the crises of the Great Depression and World War II, presidents had observed an unofficial tradition of not serving more than two terms.
Trump would face a tall order in getting a constitutional amendment through Congress to try to secure a third term.
A proposal for a constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, despite Republicans holding a slim majority in both chambers. Ratifying an amendment would require approval from three-fourths of all state legislatures.
The president told NBC’s Kristen Welker in late March that he was “not joking” when he proposed a third term, claiming there are “methods [by] which you could do it.”
“A lot of people want me to do it,” Trump told Welker. “But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.”
This comes after the president basked in chants of “four more years” just one month into his second term while at a White House reception celebrating Black History Month.
Since early in his 2024 campaigning, Trump repeatedly mused about a third term. He has raised the idea over and over again since his first term in office.
The 22nd Amendment of the Constitution says that presidents can only serve up to two full terms (eight years). Trump has said he may feel “entitled” to more while also suggesting he doesn’t want to run again after his next term ends in January 2029.
Congressional Democrats have proposed a measure to clarify that the 22nd Amendment expressly forbids a third term in office, and 78-year-old Trump, the oldest U.S. president at the time of election in history, has at times admitted defeat to the constitutional guardrails he’s up against, despite his rhetoric.
What else has Trump said about a third term?
Just days after winning the 2024 election, Trump told House Republicans: “I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say ‘He’s so good, we got to figure something else out.’”
At the House Republicans’ annual retreat in Florida, he joked about whether he was allowed to run again. Days later at a Las Vegas rally, he pondered serving “not once, but twice... or three or four times.”
At a prayer breakfast at the Washington Hilton on February 6, Trump mulled another four years, “despite the fact that they say I can’t run again.”
“You know, FDR 16 years — almost 16 years — he was four terms. I don’t know, are we going to be considered three-term? Or two-term?” he told a National Rifle Association convention in May last year, referencing Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Trump also referred to himself as a “king” and quoted Napolean Bonaparte in a social media post on February 15, unsubtly stating that he was above the law.
Trump’s former White House strategist Steve Bannon similarly said leaders like him come along once or twice in history while on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February.
“We want Trump in ‘28... We want Trump! We Want Trump!,” Bannon said before later gesturing, what critics say, a salute that resembled a Sieg Heil.
It wasn’t just the most recent election cycle where Trump seemingly eyed a third term in office.
“We’re going to win four more years in the White House,” he said in 2022. “And then after that, we’ll negotiate, right? Because we’re probably — based on the way we were treated — we are probably entitled to another four after that.”
In 2018, he praised Chinese President Xi Jinping’s potential lifetime term in office as “great,” saying “maybe we’ll give that a shot someday.”
By 2020, while campaigning for reelection in Reno, Nevada, Trump told his followers that he was going to win the state and “win four more years in the White House,” before adding: “We’re probably – based on the way we were treated – we’re probably entitled to another four after that.”
When Trump was pressed on whether he believes he can serve a third term, the president said he doesn’t want one.
“I wouldn’t be in favor of it. I wouldn’t be in favor of a challenge [to the 22nd Amendment]. Not for me,” Trump told TIME in April last year. “I wouldn’t be in favor of it at all. I intend to serve four years and do a great job.”
What is the 22nd Amendment?
The 32nd U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four terms in office helped inspire the 22nd Amendment. Ratified in 1951, the amendment came after Roosevelt had been elected four consecutive times, from 1932 to 1944. He died in office in April 1945, shortly into his fourth term.
The amendment states that presidents can serve a maximum of two terms.
If a vice president becomes president during the term of their predecessor, which has occurred nine times in U.S. history due to death or resignation, they can still serve two full terms as long as they serve less than half of their predecessor’s remaining term.
Before Roosevelt, whose time in office coincided with the crises of the Great Depression and World War II, presidents had observed an unofficial tradition of not serving more than two terms.
Trump would face a tall order in getting a constitutional amendment through Congress to try to secure a third term.
A proposal for a constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, despite Republicans holding a slim majority in both chambers. Ratifying an amendment would require approval from three-fourths of all state legislatures.
How are Democrats responding?
Rep. Dan Goldman has introduced a resolution to clarify the 22nd Amendment that explicitly prevents presidents from running for a third term (REUTERS)
In response to Trump’s interview with Welker, New York Representative Dan Goldman said Trump is carrying out “yet another escalation in his clear effort to take over the government and dismantle our democracy.”
“If Congressional Republicans believe in the Constitution, they will go on the record opposing Trump’s ambitions for a third term,” the Democrat added.
In November, Goldman introduced a resolution affirming that the 22nd Amendment would bar Trump from a third term.
He called on legislators from both parties to “stand by the oath we all took to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and confirm the Congress’ commitment to this principle.”
Goldman’s resolution would make clear that the 22nd Amendment “applies to two terms in the aggregate,” even if they are non-consecutive, such as Trump’s. Only one previous president, Grover Cleveland, has served two non-consecutive terms beginning in 1884 and 1892.
However, it is unlikely that Goldman’s resolution will make it to a vote in the Republican-dominated House.
In response to Trump’s interview with Welker, New York Representative Dan Goldman said Trump is carrying out “yet another escalation in his clear effort to take over the government and dismantle our democracy.”
“If Congressional Republicans believe in the Constitution, they will go on the record opposing Trump’s ambitions for a third term,” the Democrat added.
In November, Goldman introduced a resolution affirming that the 22nd Amendment would bar Trump from a third term.
He called on legislators from both parties to “stand by the oath we all took to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and confirm the Congress’ commitment to this principle.”
Goldman’s resolution would make clear that the 22nd Amendment “applies to two terms in the aggregate,” even if they are non-consecutive, such as Trump’s. Only one previous president, Grover Cleveland, has served two non-consecutive terms beginning in 1884 and 1892.
However, it is unlikely that Goldman’s resolution will make it to a vote in the Republican-dominated House.
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