Trump says he is ‘not joking' about trying to serve a third term. How many terms can a US President serve?

President Donald Trump in an exclusive telephone interview with NBC News Sunday said he was "not joking” about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends at the beginning of 2029.

“There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said in the interview, speaking from Mar-a-Lago, his private club.

He elaborated later to reporters on Air Force One from Florida to Washington that “I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term because the other election, the 2020 election was totally rigged.” Trump lost that election to Democrat Joe Biden.

Still, Trump added: “I don’t want to talk about a third term now because no matter how you look at it, we’ve got a long time to go.”

But can a president run for a third term in the U.S.? As speculation continues, here's where things stand right now.

Can Trump run for a third term?

The 22nd Amendment, added to the Constitution in 1951 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected four times in a row, says “no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”

Any attempt to remain in office would be legally suspect and it is unclear how seriously Trump might pursue the idea. The comments nonetheless were an extraordinary reflection of the desire to maintain power by a president who had violated democratic traditions four years ago when he tried to overturn the election he lost to Biden.

“This is yet another escalation in his clear effort to take over the government and dismantle our democracy,” said a statement from Rep. Daniel Goldman, a New York Democrat who served as lead counsel for Trump’s first impeachment. “If Congressional Republicans believe in the Constitution, they will go on the record opposing Trump’s ambitions for 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.

“We want Trump in ’28,” he said.

Kayla Thompson, a 30-year-old former paralegal in Wisconsin, said she would “absolutely” like Trump to serve another term.

“America needs him. America is headed in the right direction and, if he doesn’t do it, we’re probably headed backwards,” said Thompson, who was attending a campaign event Sunday with Elon Musk in Green Bay for a state Supreme Court race.

Jeremy Paul, a constitutional law professor at Boston’s Northeastern University, said “there are no credible legal arguments for him to run for a third term.”

In Sunday's interview, NBC’s Kristen Welker asked Trump if one potential avenue to a third term was having Vice President JD Vance run for the top job and “then pass the baton to you.”

“Well, that’s one,” Trump responded. “But there are others too. There are others.”

“Can you tell me another?” Welker asked.

“No,” Trump replied.

Vance’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

What experts say

Derek Muller, a professor of election law at Notre Dame, noted that 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.”

Muller said that indicates that if Trump is not eligible to run for president again because of the 22nd Amendment, he is not eligible to run for vice president, either.

“I don’t think there’s any ‘one weird trick’ to getting around presidential term limits,” Muller said.

In addition, pursuing a third term would require extraordinary acquiescence by federal and state officials, not to mention the courts and voters themselves.

He suggested that Trump is talking about a third term for political reasons to “show as much strength as possible.”

“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.

Trump, who would be 82 at the end of his second term, was asked whether he would want to keep serving in “the toughest job in the country” at that point.

“Well, I like working,” the president said.

Constitutional Amendment introduced

In January, three days after Trump was sworn in as president, GOP House Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee introduced a resolution to amend the U.S. constitution to allow Trump -- and any other future president -- to be elected to a third term in the White House.

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," Ogles said.

Ogles' resolution is tailored specifically to permit Trump to serve a third term, but not to allow three out of the four living former presidents to serve third terms.

For a resolution to amend the Constitution to be sent to the Archivist of the United States, CNBC reports it must receive a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. If that is done, three-fourths of the states — 38 — must ratify the amendment for it to become part of the Constitution.

What Trump has said

Trump suggested that Americans would go along with a third term because of his popularity. He falsely claimed to have “the highest poll numbers of any Republican for the last 100 years.”

Gallup data shows President George W. Bush reaching a 90% approval rating after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. His father, President George H.W. Bush, hit 89% following the Gulf War in 1991.

Trump has maxed out at 47% in Gallup data during his second term, despite claiming to be “in the high 70s in many polls, in the real polls.”

Trump has mused before about serving longer than two terms before, generally with jokes to friendly audiences.

“Am I allowed to run again?” he said during a House Republican retreat in January.

Representatives for the congressional leadership — House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York — did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the AP.