From PBS NewsHour.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he’s “not allowed to run” for a third term, echoing the constitutional restrictions in place on presidential term limits.
While the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution bars someone from being elected president more than twice, both Trump and his former White House adviser Steve Bannon have recently floated that he could seek a third term.
“Based on what I read, I guess I’m not allowed to run,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “So, we’ll see what happens.”
He said later that “it’s pretty clear” that he is “not allowed to run” again. “It’s too bad,” Trump said. “But we have a lot of great people.”
The president’s comments follow House Speaker Mike Johnson’s answer a day earlier to a question about a possible Trump third term. Johnson said that while Trump’s presidency has “been a great run,” the president “knows — and he and I have talked about — the constrictions of the Constitution, as much as so many of the American people lament that.”
The 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951, states, “No person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice.” The amendment also specifies that if someone who was not elected president has filled the role for more than two years, they can only be elected to the nation’s highest office once.
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