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Donald Trump has repeatedly raised the possibility of serving a third term as president, prohibited by the Constitution, although his Republican colleagues insist that it is only a joke.

“I suspect I won’t run again, unless you do something,” Trump reportedly told his fellow House Republicans as they gathered ahead of the congressional leadership elections. “Unless you say, ‘He’s so good, we just have to find out.'”

The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution says presidents can only serve two full terms, although Trump said he might feel “entitled” to more, while saying he didn’t want to run again after his next term ends in January 2029.

Republicans in the room later said the president-elect was only joking about his future.

“It was a joke. It was clearly a joke,” said Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee. saidThe Hill. “I leaned over to someone next to me, (Arizona Rep.) Andy Biggs, and said, ‘This will be headline news tomorrow: Trump is trying to subvert the Constitution,’ which — there is nothing further from the truth.

Democrats in Congress have proposed a measure to clarify that the 22nd Amendment expressly prohibits a third term, and Trump, 78, who will soon become the oldest president in history, has at times admitted the constitutional safeguards he relies on offends, despite its rhetoric.

What did Trump say about a third term?

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Trump has previously raised the possibility of serving a third term and violating other democratic norms.

“You know, FDR 16 years – almost 16 years – he served four terms. I don’t know, are we going to be considered for three terms? Or two mandates? he said at a National Rifle Association convention in May, referring to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Elsewhere on the 2024 campaign trail, Trump suggested he would only be a “dictator” and abuse power on “day one” of his new administration, and told an audience of Christians that he would he was elected “you will not have to vote”. ” in the future.

“We’re going to win four more years in the White House,” he said in 2022. “And then afterward, we’ll negotiate, right? Because we probably – based on how we were treated – we’re probably entitled to four more after this.

In 2018, he praised Chinese President Xi Jinping’s potential life term as “great,” saying “maybe we’ll give it a shot one day.”

When asked if he really believed he could serve a third term, Trump said he didn’t want one.

“I would not be in favor of it. I would not be in favor of a challenge (to the 22nd Amendment). Not for me”, Trump saidTIME in April. “I would not be in favor of it at all. I plan to serve four years and do a great job.

Trump and his supporters often insist the Republican is joking or not being literal after facing intense scrutiny over his statements, including after the Access Hollywood scandal, Trump’s call for Russia to release hacked Clinton campaign emails and the president’s suggestion during his first term that disinfectant could be used as a treatment for Covid-19.

Aside from the debate over the 22nd Amendment, observers are alarmed that Trump has adopted quasi-fascist rhetoric during the 2024 election campaign, including claiming that immigrants are “destroying the lifeblood of our country” and suggesting using the military to go after domestic critics, whom he dubbed “opponents.” “enemy within”.

What is the 22nd Amendment?

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FDR’s four terms helped inspire the 22nd Amendment in the first place.

The amendment, ratified in 1951, came after Roosevelt was elected four consecutive times, from 1932 to 1944.

He died in office in April 1945, shortly after beginning his fourth term.

The amendment states that presidents can serve a maximum of two full terms and that if a vice president becomes president during his predecessor’s term, which happened nine times in U.S. history, due to death or resignation, they can still serve two full terms as long as they serve less than half of their predecessor’s remaining term.

Before Roosevelt, whose term coincided with the twin international crises of the Great Depression and World War II, presidents had observed an unofficial tradition of serving no more than two terms.

Although Trump crossed constitutional guardrails in his first presidency, he would struggle to get a constitutional amendment passed by Congress to try to secure a third term.

A proposed constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate, where Republicans hold only a slim majority.

Ratification of an amendment would require three-quarters of all state legislatures.

How are the Democrats reacting?

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Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman of New York introduced a resolution saying the 22nd Amendment would bar Trump from a third term.

He called on lawmakers from both parties to “uphold the oath we all took to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and uphold Congress’s commitment to that principle.”

Goldman’s resolution would make clear that the 22nd Amendment “applies to two terms in total” even if they are not consecutive, like Trump’s.

Only one previous president, Grover Cleveland, served two non-consecutive terms beginning in 1884 and 1892.

However, Goldman’s resolution is unlikely to pass in the Republican-dominated House.