President Donald Trump has again mused about the prospect of staying in office beyond two terms ― the limit imposed by the Constitution.
He broached the matter in the form of a question as part of a Sunday morning spate of tweets in which he unleashed one of his ceaseless attacks on the media, deriding “the Failing New York Times” and “Amazon (lobbyist) Washington Post.”
Trump then claimed that shortly after a second term for him would end ― which would be on Jan. 20, 2025 ― both outlets will have folded. However, he suggested his base might want him to stick around.
“The good news is that at the end of 6 years, after America has been made GREAT again and I leave the beautiful White House (do you think the people would demand that I stay longer? KEEP AMERICA GREAT), both of these horrible papers will quickly go out of business & be forever gone,” he wrote.
Trump, who turned 73 last week, has quipped before about holding office for more than eight years, which would violate the Constitution’s 22nd Amendment.
When former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in U.S. politics was publicly released in April, the president received a trophy during a White House event for the Wounded Warrior Project.
“This will find a permanent place, at least for six years, in the Oval Office,” he said at the gathering.
Continuing, he said he would have joked “at least for 10 or 14 years, but we would cause bedlam if I said that, so we’ll say six.”
In March 2018, CNN obtained and released a recording of comments Trump made at a political fundraiser at this Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, during which he told donors he admired Chinese President Xi Jinping’s consolidation of power and his decision to scrap term limits.
“He’s now president for life,” Trump said. “President for life. ... And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot someday.”
The amendment limiting a president’s time in the office passed Congress in 1947 ― two years after President Franklin D. Roosevelt had died shortly after beginning his unprecedented fourth term. Ratification by the required number of states was completed in early 1951.
Until FDR, past presidents had adhered to the tradition established by George Washington that none should serve more than two terms. But no law prohibited ignoring that custom.