Could Donald Trump run for a third term?

Published

2 months ago

March 31, 2025

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Donald Trump is one of two presidents to serve two non-consecutive terms, second only to Grover Cleveland, who did it in the 1800s.

But Mr Trump has made comments hinting at a third term in office.

An amendment to the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the United States, prohibits anyone from serving for more than two terms.

But what has the president said, how likely is he to pursue a third term in 2028 – and is it even possible?

Has a third term been done before?

Franklin Roosevelt served as US president four times from 1933 to 1945, because there was nothing in the original US Constitution that limited how many terms a president could serve.

But later the 22nd amendment limited presidents to two four-year terms, irrespective of whether they were served consecutively or not.

Congress passed the 22nd amendment two years after Roosevelt’s death and it took effect from the 1952 election.

No one has been able to serve more than two terms since.

The amendment states “no person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice”.

What has Trump said?

The president made his most direct comments yet about seeking a third term in an interview with Sky News’ US partner NBC News on Sunday 30 March.

When asked about the possibility, he said: “A lot of people want me to do it. But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.

“I’m focused on the current,” he added.

When asked whether he wanted another term, the president responded, “I like working.”

“I’m not joking,” Mr Trump said, when asked to clarify. “But I’m not – it is far too early to think about it.”

When asked whether he has been presented with plans to allow him to seek a third term, Mr Trump said, there are “methods which you could do it”.

NBC News asked about a possible scenario in which vice president JD Vance would run for office and then pass the role to Mr Trump. Mr Trump responded that “that’s one” method.

“But there are others, too,” he added.

Asked to share another method, he simply responded “no.”

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Some of Mr Trump’s allies have been vocal in their support for him pursuing a third term.

Steve Bannon, a former Trump strategist who runs the right-wing War Room podcast, called for the president to run again during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference last month, adding in a later interview with News Nation that he believed the president would “run and win again in 2028”.

Republican congressman Andy Ogles crafted a resolution calling for the extension of presidential term limits, which would allow Trump to seek another term in office.

Could Trump do it if he wanted to?

It would be “virtually impossible”, retired Commonwealth Court judge Joseph Cosgrove tells Sky News.

He would have to amend the Constitution to do it, which Mr Cosgrove says is an “arduous task”.

“The usual method requires two-thirds of both the House and Senate to propose an amendment, which would then require three-fourths of the states to approve,” he explains.

“Given the extremely close political divisions in the United States, neither of these events is foreseeable. Even if the Republicans control both the House and Senate, their majority will be so slim that no revision of the 22nd amendment could ever occur in this climate.”

Mr Fortier, who agreed with Mr Cosgrove’s points, says some legal scholars have suggested there are loopholes that could be exploited to get around the two-term limit.

“They argue that the 22nd amendment prohibits someone from running for a third term [but] not from serving a third term,” he says.

“And by an ingenious trick, a term-limited president could be elected to the vice presidency or placed in the line of succession and then ascend to the presidency when those ahead of him in the line of succession resign.”

This is the method Mr Trump alluded to, in which Mr Vance would be elected president in 2028 with Mr Trump as his vice president, before switching positions.

Mr Fortier says that this theory, however, ignores a number of other amendments and other constitutional laws which indicate that a vice president or someone else in the line of succession “must meet the qualifications to become president”.

And Mr Trump, or someone else who has already served two terms as president, would not meet that criteria thanks to the 22nd amendment.

Additionally, Derek Muller, a professor of election law at Notre Dame, notes the 12th amendment, which was ratified in 1804, says “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of president shall be eligible to that of vice-president of the United States.”

This means that because Mr Trump is not able to be president in 2028, he also cannot be vice president, Prof Muller explains.

“I don’t think there’s any ‘one weird trick’ to getting around presidential term limits,” he continues, adding that pursuing a third term would require extraordinary acceptance by federal and state officials, not to mention the courts and voters themselves.

He suggested Mr Trump is talking about a third term for political reasons to “show as much strength as possible” rather than with the intention of running again.

“A lame-duck president like Donald Trump has every incentive in the world to make it seem like he’s not a lame duck,” he said.

Democratic congressman Daniel Goldman, who served as lead counsel for Mr Trump’s first impeachment, said in a statement: “This is yet another escalation in his clear effort to take over the government and dismantle our democracy.

“If Congressional Republicans believe in the Constitution, they will go on the record opposing Trump’s ambitions for a third term.”

What has the president said in the past?

It was in the lead-up to the 2020 election, which Mr Trump lost to Joe Biden, that he first started hinting at seeking a third term.

At a rally in August 2020, he told supporters he would win the next election and then possibly “go for another four years” because “they spied on my campaign”, an apparent nod to his unsubstantiated claims that Barack Obama had his “wires tapped” before he was elected in 2016.

According to Forbes, Mr Trump told another rally that if he were to win the 2020 election, he would “negotiate” a third term, adding he was “probably entitled to another four [years] after that” based on “the way we were treated”.

But in an interview in 2023 with NBC News, Mr Trump was asked if there was any scenario in which he would seek a third term should he win the presidency next year, to which he responded: “No.”

And in April 2024 he told Time magazine he “wouldn’t be in favour” of an extended term – but two vague comments he made in speeches last year stoked rumours he could try it.

One was during a National Rifle Association speech, when he asked supporters if he would be considered “three-term or two-term” – though this appeared to be in reference to his unsubstantiated claims that he should have won the 2020 election but that it was rigged against him.

Another came in July, when he told attendees at a conservative Christian event they wouldn’t “have to vote anymore” if he won the 2024 election, according to CBS News.

After repeatedly telling them to vote “just this time”, he added: “In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not going to have to vote.”

John Fortier, senior research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, says the comments from the Christian event have been taken out of context, and that Mr Trump was simply trying to “encourage the sometimes reluctant Christian community to vote in this election”.

“Trump in office would be able to address their concerns so much so that it would not matter if they chose to vote in future elections,” he explains.

“It was not an indication that Trump would cancel future elections or try to serve beyond his second term.”

US

Eight men on the run after audacious ‘Shawshank’ escape from New Orleans jail

Published

9 hours ago

May 17, 2025

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Eight men on the run after audacious 'Shawshank' escape from New Orleans jail

Eight prisoners could be “frankly anywhere” in the US after breaking out of a New Orleans jail. Authorities have been left wondering – how did they do it?

The audacious escape saw 10 men flee the jail on Friday through a hole behind a toilet and scale a wall, in scenes reminiscent of The Shawshank Redemption movie.

The men are believed to have made their jailbreak while the lone guard assigned to their cell pod was away getting food.

While two have been recaptured, eight of the men – among them accused murderers – remain at large. Prison officials believe they may have had inside help.

Surveillance footage showed the escapees sprinting out of the Orleans Justice Centre, using blankets to scale a barbed wire fence and then sprinting across a nearby highway.

The absence of the men went unnoticed for more than seven hours – officers only learned of their escape the next morning during a routine headcount.

A photograph showing the hole the prisoners escaped through also revealed scrawled messages – including one saying “To Easy LoL” with an arrow pointing at the gap.

They ditched their jail uniforms after leaving the facility – and it is still unclear how some of them obtained regular clothes so quickly, officials said.

Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson said the men were able to get out because of “defective locks”.

Sheriff Hutson said there are indications that people inside her department helped the fugitives escape.

“It’s almost impossible, not completely, but almost impossible for anybody to get out of this facility without help.”

Who are the escaped men?

The men range from 19 years old to 42, with most being in their 20s.

One of the fugitives, Derrick Groves, was convicted on two charges of murder and two charges of attempted murder for his role in the 2018 Mardi Gras Day shootings of two men.

Another escapee, Corey Boyd, had pleaded not guilty to a murder charge.

Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams said some of the men “have a history of witness intimidation of citizens who were brave enough to speak up”.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill called the escape “beyond unacceptable” and said local authorities waited too long to inform the public.

She said she reached out to neighbouring states to alert them about the escape, saying they have had plenty of time to get to “frankly anywhere across the country”.

US

Former FBI director interviewed after cryptic post ‘threatening’ Donald Trump

Published

9 hours ago

May 17, 2025

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Former FBI director interviewed after cryptic post 'threatening' Donald Trump

A former FBI director has been interviewed over a social media post interpreted by US officials as a threat against the US president.

James Comey, who led the bureau from 2013 until he was fired in 2017 by Donald Trump during his first term in office, shared a photo of seashells appearing to form the number 86 47.

He captioned the Instagram post: “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”

Some US officials have interpreted the post as a threat, alleging that 86 47 means to violently remove Mr Trump from office, including by assassination.

What does ’86 47′ mean?

The number 86 can be used as a verb in the US. It commonly means “to throw somebody out of a bar for being drunk or disorderly”.

One recent meaning of the term is “to kill”, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, which said it had not adopted this meaning of 86 “due to its relative recency and sparseness of use”.

The number has previously been used in a political context by Matt Gaetz, who was President Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general but resigned following a series of sexual misconduct allegations.

Mr Gaetz wrote: “We’ve now 86’d…” and listed political opponents he had sparred with who ended up stepping down.

Meanwhile, 47 is supposedly representing Mr Trump, who is the 47th US president.

Mr Comey later removed the post, saying he thought the numbers “were a political message” and that he was not aware that the numeric arrangement could be associated with violence.

“I didn’t realise some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind, so I took the post down,” Mr Comey said.

Mr Trump later hit back, rejecting the former FBI director’s explanation and telling Fox News: “He knew exactly what that meant”.

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on X, confirmed Mr Comey had been interviewed as part of “an ongoing investigation” but gave no indication of whether he might face further action.

The Secret Service is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

A spokesman for the Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting the president, said they were aware of the post and the agency would “take rhetoric like this very seriously”.

Current FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau was aware of the post and was conferring with the Secret Service.

The Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service are investigating the post “calling for the assassination” of Mr Trump and “will respond appropriately”, Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem said on Thursday.

Donald Trump Jr. accused Mr Comey of “casually calling for my dad to be murdered”.

A White House deputy chief of staff, Tayor Budowich, said Mr Comey had put out “what can clearly be interpreted as a hit on the sitting president of the United States”.

“This is deeply concerning to all of us and is being taken seriously,” Mr Budowich wrote on the social media platform X.

Another White House staffer, James Blair, said the post was a “Clarion Call (…) to terrorists & hostile regimes to kill the President of the United States as he travels in the Middle East”.

Mr Trump fired Mr Comey in May 2017 for botching an investigation into 2016 democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the White House said at the time.

While Mr Comey was the director of the FBI, the agency opened an investigation into possible collusion between the Trump 2016 presidential campaign and Russia to help get Mr Trump elected.

US

Cassie Ventura finishes her evidence after days describing alleged rape and ‘hundreds’ of freak offs

Published

9 hours ago

May 17, 2025

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Cassie Ventura finishes her evidence after days describing alleged rape and 'hundreds' of freak offs

R&B star Cassie Ventura told Sean “Diddy” Combs “I’m not a rag doll, I’m someone’s child”, after he allegedly beat her outside a lift at the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles in March 2016, a New York court has heard.

Footage of Combs appearing to drag and kick the R&B star in a corridor was initially released by CNN in May 2024. Combs subsequently apologised for his actions.

The footage of the incident, which Cassie says took place after she left a “freak off” sex session, has since been widely shared and has been shown to the jury in court as evidence for the prosecution.

Combs, 55, faces five criminal counts: one count of racketeering conspiracy; two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. He denies the allegations against him.

Cassie, whose full name is Casandra Ventura, alleges she was physically abused and degraded for years by the powerful hip-hop star and music executive, accusing him of violence, coercion, blackmail and rape.

The 38-year-old, who is the star witness for the prosecution, faced a fourth day on the stand, with the hip-hop mogul’s defence lawyers concluding their two-day cross-examination.

Heavily pregnant, she is expecting her third child in just a few weeks.

Prosecutors say Combs exploited and used his network of employees to facilitate illegal activities, while defence lawyers have been attempting to show jurors she consented to their highly charged “swingers lifestyle”.

The court also heard further details of Cassie’s allegation of rape against Combs, information around her stay at a trauma and addiction centre in Arizona and further messages appearing to show her enthusiasm for freak offs.

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial: Day 5 – As it happened

Cassie was asked about singer Chris Brown – who she denied dancing with – and tells the court Combs had form for taking her belongings, including her phone, car and watch, when he was angry with her.

An audio recording was also played to the court, appearing to show Cassie threatening a man she claimed to have a video of her at a freak off on his phone, screaming: “I will f*** you up and it won’t be my hand”.

It was not clear as to whether such a video ever existed.

Cassie was also asked about her use of drugs, and said she had struggled with opioid addiction since 2022.

She described a 45-day stay at a rehabilitation centre in Arizona in 2023, where she underwent EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) to help resolve trauma.

The centre specialises in treating “sex and intimacy issues”, but Cassie confirmed she was treated only for trauma.

The court also heard about Cassie’s allegation of rape against Combs in August or September 2018, by which time she says they had split up.

The pair were together, on and off, for about 11 years from 2007 to 2018.

‘I have love for the past, what it was’

Describing Combs taking her for dinner at an Italian restaurant in Malibu, she says he raped her after driving her home, after “acting strangely” during the meal.

When asked if she believed his behaviour was due to his “bipolar disorder”, Cassie answered “yes”.

The jury was then shown a text message which included a heart emoji, sent by Cassie to Combs the following day.

When asked if she still had love for him, she said: “I have love for the past, what it was.”

Cassie confirmed she saw Combs the following month, when she said she had consensual sex with him, during which her now-husband, personal trainer Alex Fine, attempted to FaceTime her.

She said she didn’t tell Fine she had been raped by Combs at the time, but that he “punched a wall” when she later told him.

Combs paid close attention to Cassie’s cross-examination, leaning in to read transcripts on the monitor in front of him and passing down notes to his lawyer. Cassie did not look at him throughout the trial.

A ‘$10m’ settlement with the Intercontinental

Towards the end of her questioning by the defence, Cassie was read a message from Combs in September 2012, in which he asked “do you want to have our last FO [freak off] tonight?” – to which she responded, “I don’t want to freak off for the last time, I want it to be the first time for the rest of our lives”.

In a surprise turn, Cassie also confirmed that an expected settlement of $10m had been agreed with the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles, where she was assaulted.

Following her time in court, she released a statement saying she hoped her testimony would help others “heal from the abuse and fear”.

“For me, the more I heal, the more I can remember,” she said. “And the more I can remember, the more I will never forget.”

The next witness, special agent Yasin Binda, detailed items found during a search of Combs’s Park Hyatt hotel room in 2004, following his arrest that year.

She showed the court images of exhibits including lubricant and baby oil, drugs and a bum bag containing $9,000 (£6,800) in cash.

‘Hit over the head with a skillet of eggs’

At the end of the day, Dawn Richard, a former member of girl group Danity Kane and trio Dirty Money, gave evidence, telling the court she observed Combs attacking Cassie, including a time he “hit her over the head with a skillet of eggs”.

She went on to say Combs “dragged” Cassie upstairs where she “heard glass breaking”, adding she had “never seen anything” like it before – “he was punching his girlfriend”.

Richard said she didn’t intervene or report the incident to the police as she was “scared”.

The singer sued Combs last year, accusing him of physical abuse, groping and psychological abuse during her time working with him.

Combs has been jailed since September and faces at least 15 years or possibly life in prison if convicted.

The trial is set to last for seven more weeks.