Trump 'not joking' about unconstitutional 3rd term

What happened

President Donald Trump said Sunday he was serious about possibly seeking a third term in 2028, telling NBC News there were "methods" to sidestep the 22nd amendment's hard two-term presidential limit.

Who said what

"No, I'm not joking," Trump, 78, told NBC's Kristen Welker by phone when she asked him about seeking a third term. "There are methods which you could do it." Welker raised the idea of Vice President J.D. Vance running at the top of the ticket and agreeing to "pass the baton" to Trump if he won. Trump said "that's one," but "there are others." He declined to name any.

Trump has "often mused about the idea of a third term," but usually "more as a humorous aside" at rallies, The New York Times said. This was the first time he indicated he was "seriously considering the idea," though he has already "likened himself to a king" and "displayed governance tactics constitutional experts and historians have compared to authoritarianism."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

What next?

The 22nd amendment bars Trump from running for a third term and the 12th amendment should prevent him from seeking the vice presidency, so "I don't think there's any 'one weird trick' to getting around presidential term limits," Derek Muller, a professor of election law at Notre Dame, told The Associated Press. But "a lame-duck president like Donald Trump has every incentive in the world to make it seem like he's not a lame duck."