Trump sparks debate with third-term talk
President Trump can’t stop talking about the prospect of a third term.
Trump over the weekend spoke at length in an interview with NBC News about the idea of pursuing a third term in office, saying “there are methods which you could do it.”
While the idea was broached in an interview, it is at least the fifth time Trump has publicly spoken about the possibility of serving a third term since he took office for his second.
Trump’s latest comments are the farthest he has gone to date in addressing the prospect of a third term, even as he sought to downplay the conversation as being too early into his second term. The 22nd Amendment prohibits an individual from being elected to more than two terms as president.
The remarks were met with a relative shrug from Republicans, who dismissed the seriousness of the president’s comments, and by some Democrats, who view them as a distraction from kitchen-table issues and concerning new polling for Trump.
“The president was responding to a question. He wasn’t advocating for that. We all know that you’d have to change the Constitution, and that would be highly unlikely,” Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) said on CNBC.
Jim Kessler, a co-founder of the centrist think tank Third Way, argued Democrats need to remain focused on the economy at a time when Trump’s tariff plans have rattled public confidence in his handling of the issue.
“I refuse to be sucked into the Trump third term distraction,” Kessler said. “Democrats must focus on what matters to ordinary voters and the economy and imminent Trump slump is at the top of that list.
“In four years, Trump will be a feeble, old man who will have to persuade a tired public that the path he took was best for America,” Kessler added. “No matter what he decides and what the courts allow, that’ll be a tough sell.”
Trump in his interview with NBC News did not rule out the idea of seeking a third term, telling the outlet “a lot of people want me to do it.”
The topic came up again Sunday night as Trump spoke to reporters on Air Force One.
“I don’t even want to talk about a third term now because no matter how you look at it, you’ve got a long time to go,” Trump said. “We have almost four years to go, and that’s a long time, but despite that, so many people are saying you’ve got to run again. They love the job we’re doing.”
Trump was asked Monday about the prospect that if he is allowed to run for a third term that he could face former President Obama in an election, a hypothetical that he welcomed.
“I'd love that. That would be a good one. I’d like that,” Trump told Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy.
“No, people are asking me to run. I don’t know, I never looked into it. And they do say there's a way you can do it, but I don’t know about that,” Trump added.
Many lawmakers have largely waved away Trump’s comments as a serious threat. Changing the Constitution would require approval from two-thirds majorities in both houses of Congress, as well as from three-fourths of states, something that has virtually no chance of happening.
Some Trump allies have raised the possibility that he could run as the vice presidential candidate on a ticket and serve another term if the president stepped down. But such a method is untested legally and politically.
White House officials and sources close to the administration have largely avoided suggesting Trump is serious about serving another term, describing it as a way to troll critics and get a rise out of Democrats and the media.
“Look, you guys continue to ask the president this question about a third term and then he answers honestly and candidly with a smile and then everybody here melts down about his answer,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday.
But it is not always the media that has asked Trump about a third term.
Trump twice during speeches to other Republicans has raised the idea after talking about his fundraising prowess. During a Black History Month event at the White House, it was Trump who asked the crowd if he should run again. And during a St. Patrick’s Day gathering at the Capitol, Trump quipped he hoped to host the taoiseach for the event “at least” three more times.
The president’s allies have argued those instances were all made in a joking or tongue-in-cheek fashion. But Trump’s refusal to acknowledge his legitimate defeat in the 2020 election has sparked fears that he may not leave office in 2029 when his current term ends.
Others in Trump’s orbit have leaned into the talk of a third term. Steve Bannon, who served as Trump’s chief White House strategist early in his first term, told NewsNation in mid-March that there are already efforts in the works for Trump to “run and win again in 2028.”
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) in January proposed an amendment to the Constitution that would effectively allow Trump to vie for another term in the White House by creating a carve-out for those who served nonconsecutive terms to run for a third time.
Those musings have caused alarm among some critics who have watched the president bowl over guardrails and norms in his first two months back in office. Already since taking office, Trump has dismissed government watchdogs, largely sidelined Congress as he pursues an aggressive agenda that relies on executive action and relentlessly attacked the courts over decisions he does not agree with.
For now, elected Democrats have avoided engaging directly on Trump’s talk of an unconstitutional third term.
“It’s a different outrage every day,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said Monday on CNN.
“All of these are alarming and legitimately concerning,” he continued. “But if we allow him to, like a matador with a bull, distract us this way and that way every single day, no one will know what we stand for and what we’re fighting for.”