BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
- President Donald Trump on Saturday once more suggested he would spend three terms — 12 years — in office, claiming that he was “probably entitled” to an extra term in office.
- Throughout his presidency, Trump has sometimes suggested he would spend more than two terms in office.
- The 22nd Amendment, which was ratified in 1951, established that a president may not serve more than two terms.
- Prior to the ratification of the 22nd Amendment, FDR was elected to serve four terms in office, serving 12 years as president before his death in 1945.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
President Donald Trump on Saturday once again suggested interest in serving three terms in office, claiming that he was “probably entitled” to an additional four years following a hypothetical second term at a campaign event in Nevada.
“And 52 days from now we’re going to win Nevada, and we’re gonna win four more years in the White House,” Trump told the mostly maskless, non-socially distant crowd of his supporters on Saturday. “And then after that, we’ll negotiate, right? Because we’re probably — based on the way we were treated — we are probably entitled to another four after that.”
Trump has often claimed he has been treated unfairly in comparison to his predecessors, often times pointing to the Russian election interference probe and his impeachment. Throughout his first term as president, Trump has also frequently floated the idea that he will attempt to serve more than two terms in office.
—Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 13, 2020
In August, at a rally in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the president similarly suggested he was owed a third presidential term.
“We are going to win four more years,” Trump said last month, according to Yahoo News. “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.”
In November 2018, Trump told Fox News’ Chris Wallace that he would not seek a constitutional amendment to permit him to serve more than two terms in office. He made the clarification after he had praised Chinese President Xi Jinping’s abolishment of presidential term limits.
“He’s now president for life. President for life. No, he’s great.” Trump said at the time. “And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot someday.”
“I think the eight-year limit is a good thing, not a bad thing,” Trump later told Wallace in 2018, although he has continued to suggest he would seek a third term in the time that has followed.
In June 2019, Trump told “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd that he is only joking when he says he will try to serve more than two terms as president.
Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson established an unofficial two-term limit, although President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to the office four times, in 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944, serving 12 years as president before his death, as History.com noted. In February 1951, the 22nd Amendment was ratified, limiting American presidents to serving two terms in office.
Powered by WPeMatico
