President-elect Donald Trump is already floating the idea of running for a third term in office.
In a meeting with House Republicans on Wednesday Trump said he probably wasn’t running in 2028 unless they “do something.”
“I suspect I won’t be running again, unless you do something,” Trump said. “Unless you say, ‘He’s so good, we have to just figure it out.’”
Trump has long made comments about serving more than two terms as president dating back to 2019, according to the Washington Post.
However, no president can run for more than two terms, according to the 22nd Amendment, which was ratified in 1951.
“No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once,” the amendment reads.
Several House Republicans told reporters after the meeting that Trump’s comment was meant as a joke.
“That was a joke. It was clearly a joke,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said after the meeting. “I leaned over to somebody beside me, Andy Biggs, and I said, that’ll be the headlines tomorrow, ‘Trump trying to thwart the Constitution,’ which — there’s nothing further from the truth.”
“That was a joke. I mean, he jokes all the time,” Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) said, adding that a problem with politics is that “you can’t even tell a joke without being excoriated.”
Trump previously told Time magazine that he does not support changing the 22nd Amendment.
“I wouldn’t be in favor of a challenge. Not for me. I wouldn’t be in favor of it at all. I intend to serve four years and do a great job. And I want to bring our country back. I want to put it back on the right track,” he said.
