President Donald Trump answered Tuesday whether he would try to campaign for the White House a fourth time around.
During a phone interview on CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box,’ Trump was discussing Bureau of Labor Statistics job numbers that he argues were ‘rigged’ during the 2024 presidential election to inflate former President Joe Biden’s economic performance. While discussing gerrymandering, Trump said he ‘got the highest vote in the history of Texas’ – a claim CNBC anchorman Joe Kernen initially challenged but then admitted a network fact-check showed Trump did get the highest number of votes in Texas.
‘I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, a record that they say won’t be beaten unless I run again,’ Trump said.
CNBC anchorwoman Rebecca Quick interjected, ‘Are you going to run again? The Constitution…’
‘No, probably not,’ Trump responded. ‘Probably not.’
‘And you’re not going to, and you’re not going to fire Jay Powell,’ Kernen added, referencing tensions between Trump and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
Trump circled back to address Quick directly: ‘I’d like to run,’ Trump told the anchorwoman. ‘I have the best poll numbers I’ve ever had. You know why. Because people love the tariffs, and they love the trade deals, and they love that countries – they love that foreign countries aren’t ripping us off. For years, they ripped us. A friend, and foe and a friend. And the friends were worse.’
The 22nd amendment of the U.S. Constitution says a person can be elected president only twice. If someone takes over as president – as a vice president would due to death or resignation – and serves more than two years in that term, the amendment states that person can only be elected president once more. It effectively sets a maximum of 10 years for any person to serve as commander-in-chief.
George Washington set the tradition of stepping down as president after two terms, but the amendment came about in response to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s unprecedented four terms. Roosevelt served during the Great Depression and World War II.
Trump earlier this year both teased and distanced himself from the idea of a third term, as some conservative circles have floated changing the 22nd amendment to allow an exception for nonconsecutive presidencies.
Before Trump, the last and only other president to serve two nonconsecutive terms was Grover Cleveland in the late 1800s.
In May, Trump said he considered it a ‘compliment’ that ‘so many people’ wanted him to run in 2028 but said it was not something he was interested in pursuing.
‘I have never had requests so strong as that. But it’s something to the best of my knowledge, you’re not allowed to do,’ Trump told MSNBC’s Kristen Welker. ‘There are many people selling the 2028 hat, but this is not something I’m looking to do. I’m looking to having four great years, and turn it over to somebody, ideally a great Republican. A great Republican to carry it forward. But I think we’re going to have four years, and four years is plenty of time to do something really spectacular.’
Trump said he believed the MAGA movement could survive without him, floating Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as potential successors.