Donald Trump will return to the Oval Office four years after losing out in his re-election battle against President Joe Biden.
Trump, who became the 45th U.S. president with his 2016 election victory over Hillary Clinton, will become the 47th U.S. president after defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 race, NBC News projects. He will become the second president in American history to serve non-consecutive terms, joining Grover Cleveland.
The 78-year-old president-elect will begin his second presidential term in January, but is there a possibility he could win a third term?
Here’s why the U.S. Constitution says no.
Can Donald Trump run for president in 2028?
The 22nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prohibits a president from serving more than two terms.
Because Trump will serve his second term over the next four years, he will not be permitted to hold the position again once he completes his term.
What is the 22nd Amendment?
The 22nd Amendment prohibits anyone who has been elected president twice from being elected again. It was passed by Congress on March 21, 1947, and ratified on Feb. 27, 1951.
Here is the 22nd Amendment in full, as written in the U.S. Constitution:
Section 1.
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. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.
Section 2
This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.
Could Donald Trump have run for president in 2028 if he lost the 2024 election?
If Harris had won the 2024 election, Trump would have been able to run again in 2028 because he would have only served one term as president prior to that election.
Has a president ever served more than two terms?
Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only U.S. president to serve more than two terms.
FDR won elections in 1932 and 1936 before breaking precedent and running again in 1940. He proceeded to win a third term in 1940 and later earned a fourth term by winning the 1944 election.
The 32nd president held the office from March 4, 1933, until his death on April 12, 1945.
