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2 Apr 2025 11:23
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  •   Home > News > International

    Donald Trump says he is considering ways to serve a third term as US president

    Under the US constitution no president can hold government more than twice, but Mr Trump tells US media there are "methods" that he could use to secure a third term.


    US President Donald Trump says he is "not joking" about trying to secure a third term as US president, indicating he is considering ways to circumvent existing laws that prevent him from doing so when his second term ends in 2029. 

    "There are methods [by] which you could do it," Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News. 

    The 22nd amendment, added to the US constitution in 1951 after Franklin D Roosevelt was elected four times in a row, says "no person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice". 

    Here's how Mr Trump and his supporters might try to go beyond that limit. 

    How does Trump say he could get a third term?

    Mr Trump has not explicitly said what he will try to do to secure a third term.

    In the interview with US media outlet NBC, Mr Trump was asked if one potential avenue was having Vice-President JD Vance run for the top job and "pass the baton to you".

    "Well that's one," Mr Trump responded.

    "But there are others too, there are others."

    "Can you tell me another?" interviewer Kristen Welker asked.

    "No," Mr Trump replied.

    Mr Trump, who would be 82 at the end of his second term, was asked whether he would want to keep serving in "the toughest job in the country" at that point.

    "Well, I like working," he said.

    He suggested that Americans would go along with a third term because of his popularity, falsely claiming to have "the highest poll numbers of any Republican for the last 100 years".

    Mr Trump has previously mused about serving more than two terms, generally with jokes to friendly audiences.

    "Am I allowed to run again?" he said during a House Republican retreat in January.

    Daniel Goldman a New York Democrat who served as lead counsel for Trump's first impeachment said in a statement: “This is 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.”

    Is running for a third term possible?

    Derek Muller, a professor of election law at Notre Dame, told the Associated Press the 22nd amendment would not allow for the scenario described in the NBC interview, where Mr Trump would run for vice-president under Mr Vance and assume the presidency afterwards.

    "I don't think there's any 'one weird trick' to getting around presidential term limits," he said.

    In addition, he said pursuing a third term would require extraordinary acquiescence by federal and state officials, not to mention the courts and voters themselves.

    Mr Muller suggested the president was talking about a third term for political reasons to "show as much strength as possible".

    That would leave Republicans with the option of changing the term limit set out in the constitution itself.

    Any attempt to repeal the 22nd amendment would face practical and logistical obstacles. 

    Change would require 38 states to ratify the repeal amendment after it had been voted for by two-thirds of the House and Senate. Another option would see constitutional conventions called for by two-thirds of the states.

    Republican congressman Andy Ogles from Tennessee introduced a resolution in January that expressed support for amending the constitution to allow a president to serve three terms under the condition they do not serve two consecutively.

    This would make Trump eligible as he is currently serving his second non-consecutive term.

    However, presidents who served two consecutive terms such as Barack Obama and George W Bush would not be eligible.

    Not all members of the Republican party are in support of the idea of a third term by Mr Trump, including Republican senator Markwayne Mullin who said he would not back it.

    He told NBC he was "not changing the constitution first of all, unless the American people chose to do that".

    Trump adviser Steve Bannon said in a March 19 interview with NewsNation that he believed Trump would run again in 2028. 

    Mr Bannon said he and others were looking into ways to make that happen, including examining the definition of a term limit.

    "We're working on it," Mr Bannon said.

    According to the US Constitution Centre, few challenges have arisen to the amendment's meaning when it comes to term limits for persons elected as president.

    There have also been unsuccessful attempts to repeal the 22nd amendment in Congress.

    Only one amendment has been repealed in American history, the 18th amendment establishing prohibition, a process that required another amendment, the 21st amendment, to repeal it.

    US Studies Centre's Associate Professor David Smith said it would be "near impossible" to change the 22nd amendment. 

    "Not only would that require the support of two thirds of houses of Congress, and no Democrat would support that, it would also require three quarters of states," he said. 

    "This is why constitutional changes are so rare in the US."

    He said the idea that Trump would be appointed as vice president some time after an election is also unlikely. 

    "It would require not just one but two people running for election with the intention of handing over power to Donald Trump.

    "Republicans are lining up to say this is a great idea but the fact is other Republicans have their own political ambitions and as we get closer to that date a lot of Republicans are going to be more reluctant to put their own political ambitions on hold to support someone over the age of 80 at that point."

    Has any other president attempted this?

    Not since the 22nd amendment was passed.

    George Washington in 1796 set the precedent for a two-term presidency, a self-imposed limit that was observed by most US presidents for more than 140 years until Franklin D Roosevelt in 1940.

    Mr Roosevelt was elected four times between 1932 and 1944, and died in 1945.

    Mr Roosevelt cited the need for stable leadership during the World War II era to justify his additional terms.

    He died as president in 1945 and the 22nd amendment was ratified in 1951.

    "Roosevelt was probably the last president who would have even be popular to do that," Professor Smith said. 

    "I think Trump would love to have the kind of power FDR had but he never will."

    © 2025 ABC Australian Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved

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