Despite past flippant remarks and jokes to fire up his supporters at speeches, President Donald Trump is not seriously seeking to challenge the Constitution on running for a third term.
“I’ll be an eight-year president; I’ll be a two-term president,” Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker in an interview airing Sunday. “I always thought that was very important.”
Despite having suggested to Welker in his March “Meet the Press” interview that he was “not joking” about finding a way to serve another term after this one, Trump this time told her he’s aware of the constitutional limitations on a third run for president and suggested he now has no designs on changing that status quo.
“It’s something that, to the best of my knowledge, you’re not allowed to do,” Trump said.
With the recent promotion of Marco Rubio to be national security adviser in addition to secretary of state and J.D. Vance his vice president, Trump listed both as his top candidates to lead the Republican presidential primary field in 2028.
The 22nd Amendment reads that “no person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice,” which shows Trump could not be elected in November 2028, but there has been speculation a GOP candidate could add Trump as a running mate and effectively pass him the torch of the presidency without being elected.
“Other people say, ‘You can have a write-in vote,'” Trump added, suggesting he would not run but the American voters could elect him anyway.
Amending the Constitution to permit being elected a third time as president is highly unlikely in a narrowly divided Congress, particularly with Democrats and the independents that caucus almost unilaterally voting against Republicans in the House and Senate.
The vote to change the Constitution would require backing by two-thirds of the full House and Senate besides state votes, a daunting path.
Despite the admission of the Constitution restricting him from winning a third election for president, Trump’s campaign is selling “Trump 2028” hats for $50.
“The future looks bright!” the website description reads. “Rewrite the rules with the Trump 2028 high crown hat.”
Trump said on “Meet the Press,” “There are many people selling the 2028 hat. But this is not something I’m looking to do. I’m looking to have four great years and turn it over to somebody, ideally a great Republican, a great Republican to carry it forward.”
For now, Vance and Rubio “could very well be” the top 2028 GOP names, but it is “far too early” and Trump said the GOP has a deep bench and he doesn’t want to put his thumb on the scale after years of rebuking his Democrat opposition for doing just that in past presidential election cycles.
“I don’t want to get involved in that,” Trump said, noting on Vance, “I think he’s a fantastic, brilliant guy. Marco is great. There’s a lot of them that are great.”
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