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By Shane Croucher and Giulia Carbonaro
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President Donald Trump has ruled out running for vice president in the 2028 presidential election.
"I'd be allowed to do that," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One early on Monday as he traveled to Japan, but added, "I would rule that out because it's too cute. I think the people wouldn't like that. It's too cute. It wouldn't be right."
Some Trump supporters have been clamoring for the president to seek a third term in 2028, despite the constitutional two-term limit.
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Why It Matters
The 22nd Amendment, which became part of the U.S. Constitution in 1951, states: "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."
The 12th Amendment also states that "no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of president shall be eligible to that of vice president of the United States."
Trump could only retain power for a third term if he managed to convince Congress to amend the Constitution. Such a move would need a supermajority or two-thirds in both the House and the Senate, a difficult political feat. Either way, the amendment would then need to be ratified by three-fourths of U.S. states.
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What To Know
Last week, Trump's former aide Steve Bannon said that "there is a plan" for Trump to be reinstalled in the White House after the next presidential election.
"He’s going to get a third term. Trump is going to be president in ‘28 and people ought to just get accommodated with that," Bannon told The Economist.
Asked about the obstacle of the Constitution’s 22nd Amendment, Bannon teased that there were "many different alternatives" to keep Trump as president.
Trump himself has repeatedly brought up the possibility of a third term. He recently posted an artificial intelligence (AI)-generated video on Truth Social mocking Democrats concerned about pushes to abolish presidential term limits. The video, posted on October 19, showed a mock Time magazine cover with slogans including "Trump 2028," "Trump 2032," and ending in "Trump 4EVA."
The video was posted one day after 7 million people took part in "No Kings" protests opposing his presidency across the U.S.
Back in April, the Trump Store—the president's official retail store—started selling hats and T-shirts saying, "Trump 2028." Under the main slogan, the "Make America Great Again" (MAGA)-red T-shirts have an additional message that reads, between brackets, "Rewrite the Rules."
The Constitution's Limits—Could Trump Run for a Third Term?
Baltimore University Law Professor Kimberly Wehle told Newsweek that the 22nd Amendment is not self-executing, which means that it must be enforced for it to operate.
"States each decide who gets on their presidential ballots, not the federal government. Ultimately, it’s the party that makes the nomination," she said. "If enough states put him on the ballot, the GOP will obviously nominate him—it has put no checks on his illegal behavior whatsoever this far, so it cannot be expected to choose the 22nd Amendment over him."
If someone were to sue to kick Trump off a ballot, Wehle said, "The Supreme Court ruling refusing to allow Colorado to keep him off the ballot for having engaged in insurrection under the 14th Amendment suggests that it very well could refuse to override a choice to keep him on the ballot this time under a different part of the Constitution."
She added that the country's top court came to this decision by ruling according to what voters decided, not the Constitution—an approach Wehle believes to be wrong.
Trump's comment that he won’t run as vice president, which Wehle said can trigger a "tortured argument" that he could run for the position "and then ascend to the presidency if the president stepped down in keeping with the 22nd Amendment," suggests that "he'd run at the top of the ticket and not even bother to pretend that the Constitution could operate to stop him if the Republicans have his back."
What People Are Saying
Bannon told The Economist in a video interview released this month: "Trump is going to be president in '28."
Trump said last November: "I suspect I won't be running again unless you say, 'He's so good we've got to figure something else out."
Representative Dan Goldman, a New York Democrat, told Bloomberg TV last November: "How he [Trump] operates is by floating trial balloons that he often claims are jokes, but he's very serious about it. And he's been talking about staying on past this next term for years."
What Happens Next?
Even if Trump found a way around the constitutional prohibition to run again—which he has not clarified whether he intends to or not—there is also the issue of Trump's age. By the end of his second term, Trump, now 79, would be the oldest president in history.
Age proved to be a crucial issue ahead of the 2024 presidential election, undermining former President Joe Biden's bid for reelection as political rivals and many voters expressed concerns over his health and his fitness for office.
Despite this, Wehle believes that the possibility that Trump would run for a third term is "not just a risk" right now, but "a likelihood that he'll be the Republican nominee absent unforeseen events regarding his health or something of that nature."
Update 10/27/25, 10:42 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comments from Wehle.
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