Trump says he's considering ways to serve a third term as president
[March 31, 2025]
By CHRIS MEGERIAN
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump said Sunday that
“I’m not joking” about trying to serve a third term, the clearest
indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier
against 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.
He elaborated later to reporters on Air Force One from Florida to
Washington that "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.” 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.”
The 22nd Amendment, added to the Constitution in 1951 after President
Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected four times in a row, says “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. The comments
nonetheless were an extraordinary reflection of the desire to maintain
power by a president who had violated democratic traditions four years
ago when he tried to overturn the election he lost to Biden.

“This is yet another escalation in his clear effort to take over the
government and dismantle our democracy," said a statement from Rep.
Daniel Goldman, a New York Democrat who served as lead counsel for
Trump's first impeachment. "If Congressional Republicans believe in the
Constitution, they will go on the record opposing Trump’s ambitions for
a third term.”
Steve Bannon, a former Trump strategist who runs the right-wing “War
Room” podcast, 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.
Kayla Thompson, a 30-year-old former paralegal in Wisconsin, said she
would “absolutely” like Trump to serve another term.
“America needs him. America is headed in the right direction and, if he
doesn’t do it, we’re probably headed backwards," said Thompson, who was
attending a campaign event Sunday with Elon Musk in Green Bay for a
state Supreme Court race.
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.”
NBC's Kristen Welker asked Trump if one potential avenue to a third term
was having Vice President JD Vance run for the top job and “then pass
the baton to you.”
“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.
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President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach
International Airport, Friday, March 28, 2025, in West Palm Beach,
Fla. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Derek Muller, a professor of election law at Notre Dame, 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
acquiescence by federal and state officials, not to mention 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.”
“A lame-duck president like Donald Trump has every incentive in the
world to make it seem like he’s not a lame duck,” he said.
Trump, who would be 82 at the end of his second term, 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 go along with 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 mused before about serving longer than two terms before,
generally with jokes to friendly audiences.

“Am I allowed to run again?” he said during a House Republican
retreat in January.
Representatives for the congressional leadership — House Speaker
Mike Johnson, R-La., House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New
York, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate
Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York — did not immediately
respond to requests for comment from the AP.
___
Associated Press writers Tom Beaumont in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and
Gary Fields in Washington contributed to this report.
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