Leavitt Sets the Media Straight About a Trump Third Term: You Guys Keep Asking the Question, Then Melt Down
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt downplayed reporters’ queries about whether President Donald Trump would seek a third term, suggesting they’re making it an issue.
“You guys continue to ask the president this question about a third term, and then he answers honestly and candidly with a smile, and then everybody here melts down about his answer,” she said.
Leavitt further noted that it’s four years away and, therefore, not worth putting a lot of thought toward.
.@PressSec Karoline Leavitt: “You guys continue to ask the president this question about a third term and then he answers honestly and candidly with a smile and then everybody here melts down about his answer.” pic.twitter.com/3k58UFIKVU
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 31, 2025
In a Sunday-morning phone interview with NBC News, Trump was asked about the possibility of seeking a third term. There was similar talk as Ronald Reagan neared the end of his second term in 1988.
“A lot of people want me to do it,” Trump responded. “But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.”
“I’m focused on the current,” the president added.
Further queried whether he would want a third term, the 78-year-old responded, “I like working.”
“I’m not joking,” Trump said when asked to clarify. “But I’m not — it is far too early to think about it.”
NBC wondered how he could run for a third term, given the 22nd Amendment says, “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.”
The 22nd Amendment was ratified in 1951, a little over six years after President Franklin Roosevelt had been elected to serve a fourth consecutive term in November 1944. (Roosevelt died in April 1945.)
Before that, presidents had stuck to George Washington’s precedent of serving no more than two terms.
Trump told NBC News regarding seeking a third term, “There are methods which you could do it.”
One scenario the news outlet pointed to was Vice President J.D. Vance running at the top of the ticket with Trump as his running mate and then stepping down to allow Trump to remain as president.
“That’s one” method, Trump replied. Asked for other methods, the president declined to answer.
Obviously, another method would be a constitutional amendment rescinding the 22nd Amendment in whole or in part. GOP Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee introduced a resolution in January calling for a constitutional amendment that would allow Trump to serve a third term.
Passing an amendment would be very difficult, given it requires two-thirds of a vote in Congress or two-thirds of the states agreeing to call a constitutional convention to propose the change.
Then, three-quarters of all the states would have to ratify it for the change to become law.
Trump was further queried about a third term on Air Force One while returning to Washington Sunday night.
“Does that mean you’re not planning to leave office on Jan. 20, [2029]?” one reporter asked.
“I’m not looking at that, but I tell you, I 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,” he answered.
“The Constitution limits a president to two terms. Is it your understanding that they have to be?” another reporter asked.
“I don’t even want to talk about it. I’m just telling you I have had more people say, ‘Please run again.’ I said, ‘We have a long way to go before we even think about that,’” Trump answered.
Yet another reporter wondered, “Do you think that’s an appropriate precedent to set, even if it wasn’t you in this position to see a president serve a third term?”
The president responded, “I don’t want to talk about a third term now, because no matter how you look at it, we’ve got a long time to go… You know, we have almost four years to go. And that’s a long time.”
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