Trump Once Again Threatens Unlawful Third Term

In comments to reporters Monday, President Donald Trump did not rule out running for a third term — something the Constitution explicitly prohibits.

“I would love to do it,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Japan. “I have the best numbers ever. Am I not ruling it out? You’ll have to tell me.”

In fact, Trump’s approval rating is in the low 40s, according to most poll trackers — weak for this stage in his term, even by modern standards.

It’s not the first time Trump — or his advisors or closest supporters — has suggested defying the Constitution and unlawfully running for a third term. In an April interview with NBC News, Trump was similarly asked about a third term and he said that he was “not joking” about somehow defying the Constitution to make it happen. 

“A lot of people want me to do it,” Trump said. “But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.”

The 22nd Amendment, which was drafted in the aftermath of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s death in 1945, makes it clear that no president can serve more than two terms in office. And while there are legal theories floating around about how Trump might be able to somehow skirt the law to make it happen, numerous constitutional scholars have reiterated there’s no way Trump could do it without defying the Constitution. 

And yet, some of Trump’s closest supporters have confidently said a third Trump term is poised to happen. In an interview with The Economist last week, former Trump senior advisor Steve Bannon put it bluntly: “Trump will be president in 2028 and get a third term,” he said. “People oughta get accommodated with that.” 

When pressed about how Trump could get around the Constitution’s ban on a third term, Bannon called Trump an “instrument of divine will.”

“The only way President Trump wins in 2028 and continues to stay in office is by the will of the American people,” he said. “And the will of the American people is what the Constitution embodies.”

The Trump administration is already planting the seeds to rig the 2026 midterm election — and the 2028 presidential election — in his favor, by attempting to wrest control of elections, and using the U.S. Department of Justice to seize sensitive voter data from every state. 

No matter how the Trump administration could try to contort the law to justify a third term, the Constitution is explicit that it can’t happen. Aziz Huq, a constitutional law scholar at the University of Chicago Law School, told Democracy Docket in April that should Trump try to defy the Constitution to stay in power, it will turn into a major legal battle. 

“I don’t think the question is, ‘Well, what does the law allow?’ I think the question is, ‘who stands behind the law? Are the relevant actors going to enforce the law?’” he said.