Donald Trump is mulling a third term, he should be careful what he wishes for
Washington D.C.: President Donald Trump has once again the specter of a third term by suggesting there are "methods" to extend his presidency beyond the constitutional two-term limit. His comments were made during an interview with NBC News from his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Speaking to NBC’s Kristen Welker, Trump hinted at potential avenues to remain in power beyond 2029, when his second term would end. When asked if one possibility involved Vice-President JD Vance running for president and then "passing the baton" back to him, Trump replied, “Well, that’s one. But there are others too.” He declined to elaborate further but insisted, “I am not joking.”
Later, while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump acknowledged that many supporters have urged him to seek a third term, which he framed as a "fourth term" due to his unfounded claim that the 2020 election was "rigged". However, he downplayed immediate plans, stating, “I don’t want to talk about a third term now because no matter how you look at it, we’ve got a long time to go.”
The 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951 after Franklin D. Roosevelt’s unprecedented four-term presidency, explicitly states: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.” Legal experts argue that any attempt to bypass this restriction would face significant legal and political challenges.
Derek Muller, a Notre Dame law professor specializing in election law, dismissed the notion of a loophole. He pointed to the 12th Amendment, which states that a person constitutionally ineligible for the presidency cannot serve as vice-president either. “I don’t think there’s any ‘one weird trick’ to getting around presidential term limits,” Muller told the Associated Press.
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Moreover, any effort to extend Trump’s tenure would require unprecedented cooperation from Congress, state legislatures, courts, and voters. Muller suggested that Trump’s comments may be more about projecting strength than a concrete plan, noting, “A lame-duck president like Donald Trump has every incentive in the world to make it seem like he’s not a lame duck.”
Trump’s remarks have drawn sharp rebukes from both Democrats and some Republicans. Representative Daniel Goldman (D-NY), who served as lead counsel in Trump’s first impeachment, accused him of attempting to “take over the government and dismantle our democracy". He called on congressional Republicans to publicly oppose any third-term ambitions.
Texas Democrat Jasmine Crockett echoed this sentiment on X, writing, “The Constitution isn’t optional, sir. This isn’t a reality show—it’s reality. Two terms, that’s it.”
Even some Republicans have expressed concern. John Dean, the former White House counsel to Richard Nixon who became a key witness in the Watergate scandal, likened Trump’s musings to a “constitutional end-run”.
In an interview with CNN, Dean referenced a 1999 legal debate in which scholars speculated whether a former two-term president could return as vice president and then assume the presidency again. However, he noted that most interpretations of the 22nd Amendment would block such a maneuver.
The idea of a third term is not entirely new. Before the 22nd Amendment, presidents like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson voluntarily stepped down after two terms, setting an unofficial precedent. Franklin D. Roosevelt broke tradition by winning four terms, prompting the constitutional amendment to formalize term limits.
In recent years, some Democrats have floated similar ideas—such as Hillary Clinton considering Bill Clinton as her running mate in 2016—but ultimately dismissed them as unconstitutional.
Democratic influencer Harry Sisson said on X that if Trump were to run again, he could face an unexpected challenger: “Trump should really stop talking about running for a third term unless he wants to get absolutely humiliated by President Obama in a presidential race.”