US President Donald Trump on Sunday that “I’m not joking” about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends at the beginning of 2029.
“There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News from Mar-a-Lago, his private club.
He elaborated later to reporters on Air Force One from Florida to Washington that “I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term because the other election, the 2020 election was totally rigged.” Trump lost that election to Democrat Joe Biden.
Photo: AP
Still, Trump added: “I don’t want to talk about a third term now, because no matter how you look at it, we’ve got AP, a long time to go.”
The 22nd Amendment, added to the Constitution in 1951 after Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president four times in a row, says: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”
Any attempt to remain in office would be legally suspect and it is unclear how seriously Trump might pursue the idea. The comments nonetheless were an extraordinary reflection of the desire to maintain power by a president who had violated democratic traditions four years ago when he tried to overturn the election he lost to Biden.
“This is yet another escalation in his clear effort to take over the government and dismantle our democracy,” said a statement from US Representative Daniel Goldman, a New York Democrat who served as lead counsel for 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,” Goldman said.
Steve Bannon, a former Trump strategist who runs the right-wing War Room podcast, called for the president to run again during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference last month.
“We want Trump in ’28,” he said.
Kayla Thompson, a 30-year-old former paralegal in Wisconsin, said she would “absolutely” like Trump to serve another term.
“America needs him. America is headed in the right direction and, if he doesn’t do it, we’re probably headed backwards,” said Thompson, who was attending a campaign event on Sunday with Elon Musk in Green Bay for a state Supreme Court race.
Jeremy Paul, a constitutional law professor at Boston’s Northeastern University, said: “There are no credible legal arguments for him to run for a third term.”
NBC’s Kristen Welker asked Trump if one potential avenue to a third term was having US Vice President J.D. Vance run for the top job and “then pass the baton to you.”
“Well, that’s one,” Trump said. “But there are others too. There are others.”
“Can you tell me another?” Welker asked.
“No,” Trump replied.
Vance’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
Derek Muller, a professor of election law at Notre Dame, said that the 12th Amendment, which was ratified in 1804, says: “No person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.”
Muller said that indicates that if Trump is not eligible to run for president again because of the 22nd Amendment, he is not eligible to run for vice president, either.
“I don’t think there’s any ‘one weird trick’ to getting around presidential term limits,” Muller said.
In addition, pursuing a third term would require extraordinary acquiescence by federal and state officials, not to mention the courts and voters themselves.
He suggested that Trump is talking about 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,” he said.
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