President-elect Trump floated the prospect of seeking a third term in an apparent joke to House Republicans on Wednesday as they met ahead of internal leadership elections.
“I suspect I won’t be running again unless you do something,” Trump said, according to pool reports and audio shared with The Hill. “Unless you say, ‘He’s so good, we have to just figure it out.’”
The comment got laughs from the GOP lawmakers in the crowd – several of whom later told reporters that the comment was not serious.
“That was a joke. It was clearly a joke,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said after the meeting. “I leaned over to somebody beside me, [Arizona Rep.] Andy Biggs, and I said that’ll be the headlines tomorrow, Trump trying to thwart the Constitution, which there’s nothing further from the truth.”
“That was a joke. I mean, he jokes all the time,” said Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), adding that a problem with politics is that “you can’t even tell a joke without being excoriated.”
Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), sporting a Trump tie, dismissed a question about whether he would support Trump seeking a third term.
“Are you kidding me? Just stop it,” Nehls said.
Trump is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term in office, due to the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has argued that Trump is seeking to make major policy changes as fast as possible because of his limited time in office, and will not be having to worry about seeing another term as president.
During the campaign, Trump’s opponents warned that he would be a “dictator” if elected back to office, an assertion that Republicans largely brushed off or condemned as Trump.
Trump said late last year that he would only be a “dictator “for one day to close the U.S.-Mexico border and “drill drill drill.”
“After that, I’m not a dictator,” Trump said in December 2023.
Trump has previously expressed admiration for those who have kept power in foreign countries, such as Chinese President Xi Jingping.
“He’s you know, an incredible guy,” Trump said of Xi in 2018. “Essentially president for life. That’s pretty good.”
Trump spoke to the House Republicans as they met at a hotel near the Capitol ahead of internal leadership elections.
Mychael Schnell contributed.
