Trump teases running for a third term: ‘Not joking’

President Donald Trump teased he might run for a third term, explaining to NBC News that he enjoys working and is “not joking” about making another run for the Oval Office. 

“A lot of people want me to do it,” Trump told NBC News in a phone interview on Sunday. “But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.”

For now, he’s “focused on the current” term, but told the outlet he was “not joking” about making a run for a third term. 

“It is far too early to think about it,” he added. 

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President Donald Trump smiles during a Hispanic roundtable at Beauty Society on Oct. 12, 2024, in North Las Vegas. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

The 22nd Amendment of the Constitution, which was ratified in 1951, prevents individuals from serving more than two terms as president. The amendment was ratified after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected as president for four terms. 

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Roosevelt died during his fourth term and Vice President Harry Truman assumed the presidency. FDR is the only president in the nation’s history who has been elected and served more than two terms, which was largely due to the political and economic climate at home and abroad, with his presidency unfolding amid the Great Depression and the beginning of World War II. 

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivers one of his Fireside Chat radio broadcast in this 1930s photo. (Stock Montage/Getty Images)

“There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said when asked about how he could go about running for a third term. The outlet floated a possible method where Vice President JD Vance could run for the presidency, win and pass the torch to Trump. The president said such a scenario is one of the methods he could use to serve a third term. 

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“But there are others too,” Trump added, without elaborating. 

“I like working,” he told the outlet when asked if he wants to serve another term. 

President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Uniondale, New York, on Sept. 18, 2024. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)

Trump has previously teased running for a third term, asking Republican lawmakers in January during a retreat, “Am I allowed to run again?”

While Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., a top Trump congressional ally, introduced a resolution just days after Trump’s inauguration in January to allow a president three terms in office, but no more than two consecutive four-year stints.

The amendment would read, “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than three times, nor be elected to any additional term after being elected to two consecutive terms, 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 twice.”

Ogles told Fox Digital in January that Trump “has proven himself to be the only figure in modern history capable of reversing our nation’s decay and restoring America to greatness, and he must be given the time necessary to accomplish that goal.”

“To that end, I am proposing an amendment to the Constitution to revise the limitations imposed by the 22nd Amendment on presidential terms,” Ogles said. “This amendment would allow President Trump to serve three terms, ensuring that we can sustain the bold leadership our nation so desperately needs.”

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Fox Digital reached out to the White House for additional comment on Sunday afternoon, but did not immediately receive a reply. 

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.