President Donald Trump said he would like to run for a third term, while acknowledging that the Constitution limits presidential reelection. (Foto: Instagram)
President Donald Trump has again said he would like to run for a third term in the White House, while acknowledging that the Constitution sets limits on presidential reelection. In an interview with the New York Post’s Pod Force One podcast, Trump said he would seek another term if he had the opportunity, adding that the constitutional language is “very precise.”
The interview was recorded Friday, Oct. 30, ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, when every seat in the House of Representatives and some Senate seats are up for election. Polls cited in the report suggest Republicans could lose their majorities in both chambers. Trump also referred to a poll that he said showed him leading potential opponents by a wide margin in a future election.
“I would love to run. There was a poll the other day where I beat everyone by a huge margin,” Trump said. He added that he would like to run again but noted that more than two years remained in his current term, calling that a long time in which “a lot can be done.”
Trump has raised the possibility of serving a third term before. The main obstacle is the 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951, which bars anyone from being elected president more than twice. The amendment also says that a person who served as president, or acted as president, for more than two years of a term that began with someone else may be elected only once.
At a rally in Iowa in October, Trump said he believed he had the right to run again while referring to his claims of fraud in the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden. Those allegations have not been substantiated. At the same event, Trump appeared to recognize the constitutional restriction, saying he thought the law did not allow him to run again, though he was not completely certain.
Changing the rule would require amending the Constitution. One route requires approval by two-thirds of the House and Senate, followed by ratification by at least three-quarters of the states. Another route is a convention to propose amendments, which can be called if requested by two-thirds of state legislatures; any proposed changes must also be ratified by three-quarters of the states.
The 22nd Amendment was ratified after the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the only U.S. president elected four times. Roosevelt served from 1933 until his death in 1945. The amendment limits future presidents to two elections, with the separate provision for a person who takes over another president’s term applying when that person serves more than two years of it.
