The 22nd Amendment has already had its say: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.”

To be clear, Trump cannot run for president in 2028. But there are, in theory, some roundabout ways he could go on to serve a third term.

The president’s suggestion that he would seek to stay in office beyond the constitutional limit comes as he has pushed to expand executive authority.

Trump is a lame duck president in his final term. Because these politicians will never be on the ballot for the same office again, their political clout usually wanes quickly. The third-term flirtation is a way to try to convince people that Trump will be around in the future.

In January 2025, a GOP Congressmen introduced a bill that would allow U.S President Donald Trump to run for a third presidential term. The bill would alter the Constitution to stipulate that a person can serve three terms as president so long as the person did not serve two consecutive terms prior to running for a third term.

The discussion around President Trump and a third term continues to circulate. While his adversaries may not like it, he’s not the first to spark the conversation.