Can Trump be president two terms in a row after winning US Election? Who has served more than eight years?

As the US Election campaign trail came to an end, voters made their decision, one that could have very lasting repercussions for them, and the entire world.

Following the counts, it was confirmed that Donald Trump had won by a clear margin over Kamala Harris. That’s right, American would have a convicted felon as president before she chose a woman.

Can Trump run for president in 2028?

Trump, who was previously in office for a total of 1,461 days (January 20, 2017 – January 20, 2021), was re-elected after having lost in the 2020 election, something that has only happened once before. We’re used to two-term presidents so some people are asking if he can now run again for election in 2028.

Under US law, there is a limit as to how many times a president can be elected. Those restrictions were first proposed in March 1947 and approved by the Senate and added to US Constitution on 27 February 1951. The 22nd Amendment determines that a candidate can only be elected president twice - ie. just two terms in office, whether or not consecutively.

What does the 2nd Amendment say about a president being elected?

Section 1 says the following:

“No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.

But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term”.

Could Donald Trump change Constitution to serve longer?

Clearly amendments (almost by definition) can change. The US Government states that to propose a constitutional amendment, it must gain the backing of either two-thirds of both the House of Representatives and the Senate or be initiated by a call from two-thirds of the states (38 out of 50), convening a special convention solely for that purpose.

As Section 2 states:

“This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress”.

Several presidents have previously attempted to alter or repeal the 22nd Amendment, but none have succeeded. Given this history, it seems improbable that Trump would manage to amend the Constitution to secure a third term in office.

US presidents who have served two terms in office

So when Trump is sworn in in January for a second time he will not be able to run as a candidate for the presidency again (his age would make that unlikely in any case, as he turns 79 next year and would be 82 by the time the next election comes around).

Only one US president has held office for more than two terms. Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd US president, served from January 1933, through the Great Depression and then the war years up until his death in April 1945. In total, FDR served three full terms and two months of a fourth - 4,422 days as head of state.

There have been 13 US presidents who have been in office for two four-year terms in history - of those, until Trump, only one, Grover Cleveland left office to return for a second non-consecutive term. The rest were all re-elected - right of them came before Roosevelt, and five of them after the 22nd Amendment was passed.

Of the 45 men who have been elected US president, 11 were unable to see out a full, four-year term: William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Warren G. Harding, John F. Kennedy, Gerald Ford and Joe Biden.