By New York Post (Politics) | Created at 2025-03-30 20:11:08 | Updated at 2025-04-01 18:30:40
1 day ago
WASHINGTON — President Trump said he’s “not joking” about serving a third term in the White House — and thinks there’s a loophole to make it happen.
Trump, 78, told NBC’s Kristen Welker in a Sunday morning phone call that “a lot of people want me to do it.”
Trump claimed that “there are methods which you could do it,” including having Vice President JD Vance, 40, run for president with Trump as his vice president. Vance would then resign to allow Trump to regain the top job.
“But there are others too,” Trump said, without further elaboration.
The 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951, says “no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice” — allowing for the potential loophole of Vance resigning in Trump’s favor.
“I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration. I’m focused on the current,” the president said.
Trump explained he’s interested in potentially serving as president until 2033 because “I like working.”
“I’m not joking,” the billionaire developer and former reality TV star told Welker. “But I’m not — it is far too early to think about it.”
Trump has repeatedly mentioned potentially serving a third term, though initially the idea was perceived as a way to troll Democrats and to avoid the perception that he’s a term-limited lame duck, which would sap his influence as politicians court potential successors.
The president has been greeted at several recent public events with chants of “four more years!” in recognition of that notion.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt is the only American president elected to more than two terms — dying partway through his fourth. Presidents traditionally served just two terms, following George Washington’s example, until FDR’s presidency, which prompted the Constitution to be amended to make it a rule.
Trump, the second president in US history to serve non-consecutive terms, is set to be the oldest-ever commander-in-chief when he completes his second term in January 2029 at age 82 and seven months — beating out former President Joe Biden, who left office in January at age 82 and two months.
He would be nearing age 87 at the end of a hypothetical third term.
Biden was forced by fellow Democrats to abandon his quest for a second term last July as doubts were raised about his cognitive fitness, paving the way for then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ doomed campaign. She ultimately lost all seven swing states to Trump.
However, a small handful of leaders have led major Western democracies well into old age.
West Germany’s Chancellor Konrad Adenauer was 87 when he resigned in 1963 — after 14 years in power — and is historically well-regarded for his accomplishments in rebuilding his country from the aftermath of World War II.
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) in January introduced a constitutional amendment to allow Trump to be elected to a third term, though that the legislation would need to be passed by two-thirds of the House and Senate and then be ratified by three-fourths of states — likely an impossibility due to Democratic opposition.
