Newsmax host: Trump “absolutely could run again for a third term”
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From the March 17, 2025, edition of Newsmax's Finnerty
ROB FINNERTY (HOST): All right. So what always gets overlooked when the president mentions running again is that he absolutely could run again for a third term. That is a fact. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that a president is limited to just two terms. In fact, it says the opposite. Anyone born in this country over the age of 35 has the right to run for president.
And nowhere after that, originally, does it say the Constitution is limiting someone to two terms. It doesn't say that. The two-term thing came way after that, and the two term thing was originally just because George Washington only served two terms, and it was kind of like an unwritten rule for a long time until a Democrat, Franklin Roosevelt — not surprisingly, a Democrat, because the rules clearly don't apply to them. And it's always been that way. Franklin Roosevelt ran for president once, twice, three times, four times, and he was elected four times in a row. That was when the 22nd Amendment was finally added.
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FINNERTY: If Roosevelt didn't die in office, he would have been president for 16 years. He might have run for a fifth term. After Roosevelt passed away, the 22nd Amendment was added to the Constitution to limit a president to two terms in office. And prior to Roosevelt, American presidents generally followed that unwritten rule set by Washington. But what Democrats today never mention is that at least three other presidents considered running for a third term long before Franklin Roosevelt. President Ulysses S Grant and Teddy Roosevelt both did run for a third term in office. Woodrow Wilson had every intention of running for a third term, but he had a stroke and he was incapacitated. Ronald Reagan thought the 22nd Amendment should be repealed because it prevented citizens from electing who they really want to be president. Even Barack Obama, the darling of the Democratic Party, stated in 2015 that he would win again if he ran for a third term.
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FINNERTY: Maybe Barack did have a third term. Democrats are so afraid of Donald Trump running for a third term that Pam Bondi was asked repeatedly about Donald Trump running again during her confirmation hearing for attorney general. And here's what she said would need to happen first.
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FINNERTY: All right. So in January, Tennessee congressman Andy Ogles introduced a joint resolution to start that process while Republicans control the House and the Senate. But Donald Trump might not need that. And while President Trump has also stated that he will not run again in 2028, this notion that he could never do it is fiction. He could and he might.