Since taking office three weeks ago, President Donald Trump has moved at breakneck speed to execute his agenda and “flood the zone.” Amid the torrent of executive orders, Elon Musk’s dubious efforts to seize government data and purge federal workers and the president’s outrageous proposals to take over foreign land, Trump also has repeatedly returned to the idea of serving a third term as president.
The notion, which is unconstitutional on its face, is one that Trump first raised years ago. While running for re-election in 2020, he floated the idea of serving a second term — and then a third one. Since winning the 2024 race, the 78-year-old has come back to the idea repeatedly, often almost as a quip.
After winning in November, Trump told House Republicans, “I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say, ‘He’s so good, we’ve got to figure something else.’”
Then, the week after he was sworn in, Trump told members of the House GOP that he didn’t think he could run again but was unsure. And at the National Prayer Breakfast last week, he again suggested that it wasn’t set in stone that he wouldn’t be able to run for president again after serving two terms.
“They say I can’t run again; that’s the expression. ‘Sir ...’ Then somebody said, ‘I don’t think you can.’ Oh!” Trump said, chuckling.
Some Republicans have been open to the idea. Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., even proposed a resolution to amend the Constitution to allow a third term, just three days after the president returned to the White House.
Meanwhile, some Democrats have called on their GOP colleagues to rebuke the president’s proposition.
To be clear, Trump cannot constitutionally run for president in 2028; the 22nd Amendment prohibits anyone from being “elected to the office of the President more than twice.”
The 22nd Amendment prohibits anyone from being “elected to the office of the President more than twice.”
But there are, in theory, some roundabout ways he could go on to serve a third term. One such scenario would involve Vice President JD Vance or someone else running at the top of the ticket — with Trump as the vice presidential nominee — and then stepping aside to let Trump assume the presidency if elected.
As with many ideas that Trump proposes, it’s hard to determine how much stock to put in his toying with the possibility of a third term. But he is a president who has aggressively sought to stretch the boundaries of his executive power and repeatedly trampled over political norms, and some legal experts have warned against dismissing it as a totally implausible idea.