{"id":1011,"date":"2025-03-31T02:25:23","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T02:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/03\/31\/trump-says-hes-considering-ways-to-serve-a-third-term-as-president-the-associated-press\/"},"modified":"2025-03-31T02:25:23","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T02:25:23","slug":"trump-says-hes-considering-ways-to-serve-a-third-term-as-president-the-associated-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/03\/31\/trump-says-hes-considering-ways-to-serve-a-third-term-as-president-the-associated-press\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says he\u2019s considering ways to serve a third term as president – The Associated Press"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump<\/a><\/span> said Sunday that \u201cI\u2019m not joking\u201d about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends at the beginning of 2029.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are methods which you could do it,\u201d Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News from Mar-a-Lago, his private club. <\/p>\n

He elaborated later to reporters on Air Force One from Florida to Washington that \u201cI have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term because the other election, the 2020 election was totally rigged.\u201d Trump lost that election to Democrat Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

Still, Trump added: \u201cI don\u2019t want to talk about a third term now because no matter how you look at it, we\u2019ve got a long time to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 22nd Amendment<\/a><\/span>, added to the Constitution in 1951<\/a><\/span> after President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected four times in a row, says \u201cno person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any attempt to remain in office would be legally suspect and it is unclear how seriously Trump might pursue the idea. The comments nonetheless were an extraordinary reflection of the desire to maintain power by a president who had violated democratic traditions four years ago when he tried to overturn the election he lost to Biden.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is yet another escalation in his clear effort to take over the government and dismantle our democracy,\u201d said a statement from Rep. Daniel Goldman, a New York Democrat who served as lead counsel for Trump\u2019s first impeachment. \u201cIf Congressional Republicans believe in the Constitution, they will go on the record opposing Trump\u2019s ambitions for a third term.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steve Bannon, a former Trump strategist who runs the right-wing \u201cWar Room\u201d podcast, called for the president to run again during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference last month. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe want Trump in \u201928,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Kayla Thompson, a 30-year-old former paralegal in Wisconsin, said she would \u201cabsolutely\u201d like Trump to serve another term.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica needs him. America is headed in the right direction and, if he doesn\u2019t do it, we\u2019re probably headed backwards,\u201d said Thompson, who was attending a campaign event Sunday with Elon Musk in Green Bay for a state Supreme Court race. <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Jeremy Paul, a constitutional law professor at Boston\u2019s Northeastern University, said \u201cthere are no credible legal arguments for him to run for a third term.\u201d<\/p>\n

NBC\u2019s Kristen Welker asked Trump if one potential avenue to a third term was having Vice President JD Vance run for the top job and \u201cthen pass the baton to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, that\u2019s one,\u201d Trump responded. \u201cBut there are others too. There are others.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you tell me another?\u201d Welker asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Trump replied.<\/p>\n

Vance\u2019s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Derek Muller, a professor of election law at Notre Dame, noted that the 12th Amendment<\/a><\/span>, which was ratified in 1804, says \u201cno person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Muller said that indicates that if Trump is not eligible to run for president again because of the 22nd Amendment, he is not eligible to run for vice president, either.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any \u2018one weird trick\u2019 to getting around presidential term limits,\u201d Muller said.<\/p>\n

In addition, pursuing a third term would require extraordinary acquiescence by federal and state officials, not to mention the courts and voters themselves.<\/p>\n

He suggested that Trump is talking about a third term for political reasons to \u201cshow as much strength as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA lame-duck president like Donald Trump has every incentive in the world to make it seem like he\u2019s not a lame duck,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Trump, who would be 82 at the end of his second term, was asked whether he would want to keep serving in \u201cthe toughest job in the country\u201d at that point.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I like working,\u201d the president said.<\/p>\n

Trump suggested that Americans would go along with a third term because of his popularity. He falsely claimed to have \u201cthe highest poll numbers of any Republican for the last 100 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gallup data<\/a><\/span> shows President George W. Bush reaching a 90% approval rating after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. His father, President George H.W. Bush, hit 89% following the Gulf War in 1991.<\/p>\n

Trump has maxed out at 47% in Gallup data during his second term, despite claiming to be \u201cin the high 70s in many polls, in the real polls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump has mused before about serving longer than two terms before, generally with jokes to friendly audiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cAm I allowed to run again?\u201d he said during a House Republican retreat in January.<\/p>\n

Representatives for the congressional leadership \u2014 House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York \u2014 did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the AP.<\/p>\n

___<\/h2>\n

Associated Press writers Tom Beaumont in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Gary Fields in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump said Sunday that \u201cI\u2019m not joking\u201d about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends at the beginning of 2029. \u201cThere are methods which you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}