Say What?! Trump Says He’s Considering Ways To Serve As President A Third Time

President Donald Trump said Sunday that he’s “not joking” about trying to serve a third term. This was the clearest indication that he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier to continuing to lead the country after his second term ends at the beginning of 2029.

“There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News from Mar-a-Lago, his private club.

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What Else Did President Donald Trump Say About A Third Term?

Later, on Air Force One from Florida to Washington, President Donald Trump elaborated to reporters.

“I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term because the other election, the 2020 election, was totally rigged.”

As you might already know, Trump lost that election to Democrat Joe Biden. Still, Trump added: “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.”

NBC’s Kristen Welker asked Trump if Vice President JD Vance was one potential lane to a third term. Welker asked whether Vance would run for the top job and pass “the baton” to Trump.

“Well, that’s one,” Trump responded. “But there are others too. There are others.” “Can you tell me another?” Welker asked. “No,” Trump replied.

Vance’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. Keep in mind that Trump would be 82 at the end of his second term. He was asked whether he would want to keep serving in “the toughest job in the country” at that point. “Well, I like working,” the president said.

Trump suggested that Americans would support a third term because of his popularity. He falsely claimed to have “the highest poll numbers of any Republican for the last 100 years.” Gallup data shows President George W. Bush reaching a 90% approval rating after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. His father, President George H.W. Bush, hit 89% following the Gulf War in 1991. Trump has maxed out at 47% in Gallup data during his second term, despite claiming to be “in the high 70s in many polls, in the real polls.”

Trump has previously discussed serving longer than two terms, but it was mostly in jokes to friendly audiences. “Am I allowed to run again?” he said during a House Republican retreat in January.

Is A Third Term President Possible? 

The 22nd Amendment was added to the Constitution in 1951 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected four times in a row. It reads, “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”

Any attempt to remain in office would be legally suspect, and it is unclear how seriously Trump might pursue the idea. Nonetheless, his comments seem to reflect his desire to maintain power. As is well documented, President Trump has been known to violate democratic traditions, including four years ago when he tried to overturn the election he lost to Biden.

Among political leaders speaking out against the third-term conversation was Rep. Daniel Goldman. The representative served as lead counsel for Trump’s first impeachment.

“This is yet another escalation in his clear effort to take over the government and dismantle our democracy,” said a statement from the New York Democrat. “If Congressional Republicans believe in the Constitution, they will go on the record opposing Trump’s ambitions for a third term.”

Steve Bannon called for the president to run again during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference last month. “We want Trump in ’28,” he said. Bannon is a former Trump strategist who runs the right-wing “War Room” podcast.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Paul, a constitutional law professor at Boston’s Northeastern University, said, “There are no credible legal arguments for him to run for a third term.”

Derek Muller, a professor of election law at Notre Dame, agrees. Muller noted that the 12th Amendment, which was ratified in 1804, says:

“No person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.”

Muller said that indicates that if Trump is not eligible to run for president again because of the 22nd Amendment, he is not eligible to run for vice president, either. “I don’t think there’s any ‘one weird trick’ to getting around presidential term limits,” Muller said.

In addition, pursuing a third term would require extraordinary agreement by federal and state officials, and the courts and voters themselves. He suggested that Trump is talking about a third term for political reasons to “show as much strength as possible.”

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Associated Press writers Chris Megerian, Tom Beaumont, and Gary Fields contributed to this report.