Trump's Trials - Trump says he's 'not joking' about a third term. What's going on?

Episode Date: April 1, 2025

President Trump recently declined to rule out running for a third term, setting up questions about the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution which implements a two-term limit for the presidency. NPR's Domenico Montanaro explains. Support NPR and hear every episode sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

It's Trump's Terms from NPR. I'm Scott Detrick. We're going to be doing all sorts of things nobody ever thought was even possible. It's going to be a very aggressive first hundred days of the new Congress. An unpredictable, transformative next four years. The United States is going to take off like a rocket ship. Each episode, we bring you NPR's coverage of President Trump acting on his own terms. And that means sometimes doing things that no American president has tried before. NPR is covering it all in stories like the one you are about to hear right after this.

This message comes from Mint Mobile. Mint Mobile took what's wrong with wireless and made it right. They offer premium wireless plans for less, and all plans include high-speed data, unlimited talk and text, and nationwide coverage. See for yourself at mintmobile.com slash switch. I'm Ari Shapiro. President Trump said on Sunday that he is looking at ways to serve as president again,

even though he's constitutionally barred from running in another presidential election. And he said he's not joking. So what's going on here to help us understand? And if your senior political editor and correspondent, Domenico Montanaro is with us, hey Domenico. Hey Ari. Trump has toyed with this idea publicly before.

Does he mean it? Well, you never quite know with president Trump. You know, he can say one thing one day and then reverse course the next. And that's a little bit of what kind of happened here too. I mean, he said on NBC's meet the Press on Sunday that he's quote, not joking, that people want him to run and are looking into it. But later the same day on Air Force One, he was a bit cagey. Here's what he had to say.

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. We have a long time. You know, we have almost four years to go and that's a long time to go. We have a long time. We have almost four years to go, and that's a long time. It is a long time, but multiple times he also said that he didn't want to talk about it, that he also continued to say people are asking him to do it, and he would not commit to leaving office on January 20th, 2029 when the next president should be sworn in. He just avoided it altogether. Well even if he's not very clear on this, the Constitution is.

What does the Constitution say? Yeah, there are a couple of amendments that apply here. Most prominently is the 22nd Amendment, which says, quote, "'No person shall be elected to the office of president more than twice.'" It says nothing about consecutive terms, for example, just no more than twice.

It also says that someone who's been president for more than two years of a term someone else was elected to cannot be elected to the office of president more than once. So that's a situation like LBJ former president, former vice president taking over for President John F. Kennedy when he was assassinated and the amendment was basically designed so someone doesn't serve more than 10 years in the in the White House. Ironically, it was Republicans who pushed for this amendment in the first place in the 1940s because Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to four terms, going against what had been the norm, not that others haven't thought about it, of course.

Well, if we take Trump at his word that people around him are looking into this, what kinds of options might they be exploring? Well, the 22nd Amendment's language is all about someone who's elected president. It doesn't say anything about someone serving as vice president and then taking up the office again if the president gives up the office, for example. So imagine Trump running with JD Vance in 2028, for example, or someone else running as VP.

And when they're elected, that person steps aside for Trump. But then they run into the 12th Amendment that says, quote, no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of president shall be eligible to that of vice president. Others have floated the idea though of making Trump speaker of the house, and then both the president and VP resign giving Trump the presidency. But wow, I mean, that's a lot of maneuvering. Still, there is a more straightforward way for Trump to do this. Do tell. What is it? Through the courts. I mean, he could challenge the constitutionality of the amendment of

the 22nd Amendment outright and have it thrown out, or he could just run and force a constitutional crisis. You know, there aren't the votes right now for that at the Supreme Court, we should say. But, you know, these are the things that people around him are looking at and taking seriously. How serious is this? Or is it just kind of political sleight of hand? Yeah, we don't know. And part of this could be ripped from an old political playbook of trying to distract from bad news.

And look what's happening, right? I mean, the Signal Chat Group controversy dominated coverage last week. Tariffs are coming up this week and could lead to higher car prices. But he wants to get people talking about something else, and we've seen that movie before plenty of times with him and other presidents. It also could be an effort by Trump to start this debate and again normalize something abnormal and chip away at democratic norms. So we don't know if Trump really wants to do this, but it's probably best to take him seriously and literally. And Piaras Domenico Montanaro, thank you. You're welcome.

Before we wrap up a reminder, you can find more coverage of the Trump administration on the NPR Politics Podcast, where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's biggest political news, with new episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks as always to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsored messages. You can learn more at plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detrow, thanks for listening to Trump's terms from NPR.

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