Norms Impact
Trump won’t rule out seeking a third term in the White House, tells NBC News ‘there are methods’ for doing so
A sitting president publicly sketches “methods” to evade the 22nd Amendment, signaling a willingness to treat constitutional term limits as optional.
Mar 30, 2025
Sources
Summary
President Donald Trump said he is “not joking” about the possibility of seeking a third term, despite the Constitution’s 22nd Amendment prohibiting it. The presidency is being used to normalize talk of bypassing constitutional term limits and to float succession workarounds as legitimate “methods.” The practical consequence is a direct stress test of the two-term guardrail and public conditioning for an end-run around the nation’s highest democratic constraint.
Reality Check
Normalizing schemes to bypass the 22nd Amendment corrodes the core premise that no president is above the Constitution, and it teaches the public to accept power-transfer tricks that weaken our own voting rights in practice. The conduct described is not, on this record, a completed federal crime—talking about hypothetical “methods” is not itself an attempt—but any concrete plan to install an ineligible person as president would invite scrutiny under the 20th Amendment and the 12th Amendment’s eligibility rules, and could trigger litigation over ballot access and succession. Even without a chargeable statute named here, it is a profound abuse-of-office norm breach: using presidential megaphone and allied legislative pressure to test-drive constitutional evasion as a governing tactic.
Detail
<p>In a Sunday-morning phone interview with NBC News, President Donald Trump said he would not rule out seeking a third term in the White House and stated he was “not joking.” He said “a lot of people” want him to do it, while also saying it was “far too early” and that he was focused on his current term.</p><p>When asked whether he had been presented with plans to allow a third term, Trump said, “There are methods which you could do it.” He acknowledged one scenario raised by NBC News: Vice President JD Vance could run for president and then transfer the role to Trump. Trump added that there were other methods but declined to describe them.</p><p>The 22nd Amendment prohibits a third presidential term. NBC News noted that formally removing the two-term limit would require a constitutional amendment initiated by two-thirds of Congress or two-thirds of states calling a convention, followed by ratification by three-quarters of states. Rep. Andy Ogles introduced a resolution to extend term limits, and Trump ally Steve Bannon said he believes Trump will run again in 2028.</p>