Whether Trump can run for president again after he makes joke about third term
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News
Mia Williams
Featured Image Credit: Allison Robbert-Pool/Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News
Donald Trump has joked that he may run for president again, prompting some to wonder whether this is actually possible.
Trump hasn't even been in the White House a month yet and he's already talking about the next US presidential election.
Since his inauguration last month, he has signed more than 50 executive orders - the most in a president's first 100 days in more than 40 years.
He has also been very busy attending events all over the US, and took part in two prayer breakfasts on Thursday (6 February) morning at the Washington Hilton.
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But things got serious when Trump spoke about potentially running for president again in 2028.
At the breakfast, he said: "I want to be here with you, and I have to be here with you.
"And I do that despite the fact that they say I can’t run again."
He added: "No, I want to be with you regardless. It’s an honour."
It's not the first time that Trump has spoken about running in a presidential election for the third time.
At a Las Vegas rally last week, he said: "It will be the greatest honour of my life to serve not once but twice – or three or four times."
Well, technically not.
But if there's one thing we know about Trump - where there is a will, there seems to always be a way.
The 22nd amendment currently prohibits a president for running for more than two terms.
It reads: "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."
However, there's more...
It continues: "But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term."
This slightly wordy explanation was formed as a reaction to Franklin D. Roosevelt's election to an unprecedented four terms in the role, making the 32nd the longest-serving president in history.
And this week, Republican House member Andy Ogles of Tennessee introduced a new measure, hoping to amend this long-standing constitution.
When talking about the 78-year-old (via CNBC), Ogles claimed he has 'proven himself to be the only figure in modern history capable of reversing our nation’s decay and restoring America to greatness'.
Ogles seeks to change the Constitution so that it reads, 'No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than three times', as opposed to 'two'.
However, an amendment to the US Constitution is highly unlikely as the notion would have to receive two-thirds majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, the two bodies that make up Congress.
It would then have to ratified by three quarters of the 50 states that make up America.