President Donald Trump refused to rule out running for a third term — despite the Constitution barring him from serving more than two presidential terms.
Speaking Monday on Air Force One on his way to Tokyo, a reporter cited recent comments by Trump ally Steve Bannon, who claimed last week that Trump would be president in 2028: “Is that something you’d be willing to challenge at the court to be able to do?”
“I haven’t really thought about it. We have some very good people as you know, but I have the best poll numbers I’ve ever had,” Trump replied.
Pressed as to who he was referring to by “good people,” Trump pointed to Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The president then said: “I’m not sure if anybody would run again. I think if they ever formed a group, it would be unstoppable, I do. I really believe that. I would love to do it. I have my best numbers ever.”
The 22nd Amendment prohibits anyone from serving more than two terms as president: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”
A reporter then asked about whether Trump could circumvent the 22nd Amendment by running as the vice president. The president said he’d “be allowed” to do that, but he wouldn’t want to: “I would rule that out because it's too cute. I think the people wouldn't like that. It's too cute. It wouldn't be right."
Under this plan, Trump could simply return to the White House as the vice president — or he could ask the president to resign and then assume the presidency. However, he would then run into issues with the 12th Amendment, which states: “No person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.”
Still, Trump bolstered the idea of running a third term by claiming he “solved” eight wars, an uptick from last month when he took credit for solving seven after he oversaw a peace treaty between Cambodia and Thailand over the weekend.
“I mean, I just solved eight wars and a ninth is coming. I believe Russia-Ukraine will happen,” the president said Monday. “I mean it’s millions of people we saved. I saved the lives of millions of people. That’s what’s important.”
Asked directly if he wasn’t ruling out a third term, Trump replied: “Am I not ruling it out? I mean, you’ll have to tell me.”
“All I can tell you is that we have a great group of people, which they don’t,” the president said, seemingly referring to the Democrats.
Last week, Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist during his first term, told told The Economist in a video interview: “He’s going to get a third term. Trump is going to be president in ‘28 and people ought to just get accommodated with that.” When asked about whether the 22nd Amendment stood as a barrier to Trump’s third bid, Bannon replied: “There’s many different alternatives. At the appropriate time, we’ll lay out what the plan is, but there is a plan, and Trump will be the president in ‘28.”
This is far from the only time Trump has floated the idea of running for a third time.
Just days after clinching the 2024 presidential election, Trump told House Republicans: “I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say ‘He’s so good, we got to figure something else out.’”
Days into his second term, he declared at a Las Vegas rally that he was the “most upwardly mobile politician in history, adding that “it will be the greatest honor of my life to serve, not once but twice or three times or four times.”
In March, the president told Meet the Press he was “not joking” about running for election again.
“A lot of people want me to do it,” the president said at the time. “But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.”
Even before reclaiming the White House last year, Trump seemed to have his eye on a third term.
“We’re going to win four more years in the White House,” he said in 2022. “And then after that, we’ll negotiate, right? Because we’re probably — based on the way we were treated — we are probably entitled to another four after that.”
Despite his flirtations with a third run, Trump told Time in April 2024 that he didn’t plan on seeking a third term. “I wouldn’t be in favor of it. I wouldn’t be in favor of a challenge [to the 22nd Amendment]. Not for me,” Trump told the magazine. “I wouldn’t be in favor of it at all. I intend to serve four years and do a great job.”
