Trump Brushes Off 2028 Third-Term Question

President Donald Trump brushed aside a question Tuesday night about whether he might seek a third term in 2028, saying the law is very strong. Trump made the comment while speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland after attending the Patriot Games earlier in the day.

“Everybody asks me that question, and you know that the law is very strong on that,” Trump said. “I’d love to run, but the law is very strong.” He added that people were even shouting “2028” at the event. Trump repeated the point, saying that while many people want him to do it, “the law is very strong.”

The legal barrier comes from Section 1 of the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which says no one may be elected president more than twice. That amendment was ratified in February 1951, years after Franklin D. Roosevelt completed four terms in office. Before Roosevelt, the two-term limit was a long-standing tradition tied to the precedent set by George Washington.

Trump has treated the subject as a mix of joke and possibility during his second term. At the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on July 24, he joked that “the third time will be better yet,” before adding that he was only kidding. But in a March 30, 2025 interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker, Trump took a firmer line and said he was not joking about the idea of seeking another term.