2028 Trump Third Term
Donald Trump mentioned extending his stay in the White House while on the campaign trail in 2020. “We are going to win four more years,” Trump said at a rally in Oshkosh, Wisconsin on August 18, 2020. "And then after that, we’ll go for another four years because they spied on my campaign. We should get a redo of four years.” The Twenty-Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1951, limits presidents to two terms in office. Donald Trump, having served as the 45th president from 2017 to 2021 and recently elected as the 47th president in 2024, is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term. Despite this constitutional limitation, Trump has made remarks suggesting interest in a third term. In a meeting with House Republicans, he humorously mentioned he wouldn't seek a third term unless they found a way to allow it, acknowledging the constitutional restriction.
Trump suggested 13 November 2024 that he could be open to a constitution-breaking third term in office, in remarks made to House Republicans ahead of the start of his second term. "I suspect I won't be running again unless you say, 'He's good, we got to figure something else,'" Trump provocatively told his audience in a downtown Washington hotel, drawing some laughter from supporters. Trump's suggestion of a third term stands in stark contrast to the US Constitution, which explicitly limited presidents to two terms in office. This restriction was established by the 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951 following Franklin D. Roosevelt’s unprecedented four-term presidency.
Michael C. Dorf noted November 13, 2024 "Perhaps Congress would pass a resolution declaring that Trump's first term doesn't count because of the Mueller investigation, the House impeachments, and/or other makeweight reasons. Or perhaps Republicans would simply nominate Trump for president and expect--with some justification given the Supreme Court's ruling in Trump v. Anderson--that the courts would not stop him from running for or holding office." Alternately, "in 2028, Republicans could run a ticket of Vance for president and Trump for VP. Then, following Vance's swearing in, he resigns, and Trump becomes president. At that point, Trump names Vance (or someone else) as his VP."
The 22nd Amendment bars candidates from being "elected" to the presidency more than twice but does not bar anyone from serving as president more than twice. The 22nd Amendment doesn’t prevent a former president who has already served two terms from becoming vice president in a subsequent term. As vice president, that person could then ascend to the presidency if the president on the ticket stepped down. Or the Supreme Court could choose interpret the 22nd Amendment to say that it only applies to presidents who have served consecutive terms, but that might be a bit of a stretch based on its text, even for the Trump Court. Trump was putting the idea into Republican voters’ minds that maybe another candidate with the last name “Trump” might be the best choice for the party in the future.
Steve Bannon pushed Trump 15 December 2024 to consider a third presidential term in 2028. The political strategist suggested the two-term limit doesn’t count in Trump’s case because his terms in office were not consecutive. “I don’t know, maybe we do it again in ’28,” Bannon told the New York Young Republican Club. “Are you guys up for that,” he added to a loud burst of applause. “Trump ’28, come on, man!”
Michael Wolff's 17 October 2025 analysis of how President Trump could potentially pursue a third term warned that as an authoritarian consolidates power and makes enemies, he has increasing reason to stay in power to avoid retribution. Trump could run for reelection regardless, with any lawsuits ending up at the Supreme Court, which may have limited ability to force compliance with its rulings.
Trump pointed to his presidential accomplishments as reasons to possibly campaign for a third term in office, the constitution be damned. “We have the greatest economy we’ve ever had, I have my highest poll numbers that I’ve ever had,” he boasted to reporters in an interview on board Air Force One. “And, you know, based on what I read, I guess I’m not allowed to run. So we’ll see what happens.”
“Trump is going to be president in ‘28, and people just ought to get accommodated with that,” Steve Bannon, the former presidential aide, told The Economist on 23 October 2025.
Trump’s opponents say that the US president’s militarization of American states to round up millions of illegal migrants is a convenient way to keep Democratic voters home on election day. Democrat Illinois Governor JB Pritzker equated actions taken by the current Trump administration to the “early days of the Nazi regime,” and claimed that the National Guard would be deployed at polling stations for future elections.
In an interview with Rachel Maddow, Pritzker claimed that the deployment of the National Guard has been carried out for the “broader goal” of the militarization of major American cities before the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election. He said, “I fear that what they’re going to do is deploy these folks eventually to polling places and say they’re protecting the vote. Donald Trump knows that without shenanigans and without these breaches of the Constitution, that he’s going to lose the Congress, and if he loses, he’s going to immediately… do what he said he might do in 2020 which is use the military to confiscate the ballot boxes and count the votes claiming that there’s fraud.”
Trump has gone on record as saying he could use the excuse of a military conflict to remain in power as a ‘war president,’ much like Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has done in his own country where martial law has been in place fort years. During a visit to the White House by Zelensky in August, Trump suggested that he is not opposed to using a war to cancel the next election. “So let me just say three and a half years from now – so you mean, if we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections? Oh, I wonder what the fake news would say,” he said, before leading the Ukrainian leader to the White House gift shop, which was peddling ‘Trump 2028’ merch.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
