In a new interview, the president was asked about whether he had asked the Department of Justice to probe the legality of running for another term.
President Donald Trump said in a new interview that he is not looking to run for a third term and said it would be “very hard” to accomplish.
Speaking with The Atlantic in an interview published on Monday, Trump was asked about whether he had asked the Department of Justice to probe the legality of running for another term. Trump said that he has not but appeared to joke about the possibility.
“That would be a big shattering, wouldn’t it?” he said while laughing, according to The Atlantic reporters. “Well, maybe I’m just trying to shatter.”
Later in the interview, Trump said that a third term is “not something that I’m looking to do. And I think it would be a very hard thing to do.”
He was asked about whether his presidential successor would possibly engage in retribution against him.
“Oh, I don’t know. I’ve already gone through it,” Trump said, referring to state and federal cases that were brought against him after leaving the White House following his first term. “I got indicted five different times … and they’re all looking for jobs now, so it’s one of those things. Who would have thought, right? It’s been pretty amazing.”
Since taking office in January, Trump has, on multiple occasions, mused that he may want to run for a third term, which would pose a legal challenge. The 22nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says that “no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”
The amendment was ratified in 1951 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to four consecutive terms. Roosevelt was the only president in U.S. history to be elected to more than two terms.
Trump’s comment to The Atlantic comes less than a month after he told NBC News that “a lot of people want” him to run again. … I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.”
