No, former President Trump could not serve two more terms if reelected

After a record-setting win in the Iowa caucuses, former President Donald Trump won New Hampshire’s primary on Tuesday, Jan. 23. 

Trump’s only major challenger in the 2024 race is former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who finished second in the New Hampshire primary. 

As Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign gains steam, several VERIFY readers have asked if the former president could serve two more terms if he is reelected.

THE QUESTION

Could former President Trump serve two more terms if he is reelected?

THE SOURCES

• 22nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
• The National Constitution Center
• Annenberg Classroom, part of the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center
• The White House

THE ANSWER

No, former President Trump couldn’t serve two more terms if he is reelected.

WHAT WE FOUND

A two-term limit for presidents was established in February 1951 with the ratification of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution. The Republican-controlled Congress championed the amendment after former President Franklin Roosevelt won four consecutive terms, according to The National Constitution Center.  

The 22nd Amendment reads, in part:

“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 President more than once.”

That means a person can only be elected president twice for a total of eight years in office. Since Trump has already served one term as president, he’d only be eligible to serve one more, even though the terms wouldn’t be consecutive.

There is an exception in the 22nd Amendment that allows someone who assumes the presidency without being elected to the office to serve up to 10 years as president, the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center explains. But it doesn’t apply to Trump. 

If a vice president or other successor takes over for a president who can’t finish out their term, and that person serves two years or less of the former president’s term, they would be eligible to serve two full four-year terms afterward.

But if the successor serves more than two years of the former president’s term, they can only serve for one more term afterward, the center says. 

If Trump were to win reelection in 2024, he’d be the second president to ever serve two nonconsecutive terms

Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th U.S. president, is the only president who left the White House and returned four years later for a second term.

This story is also available in Spanish / Lee este artículo también en español: No, el expresidente Donald Trump no podría cumplir dos términos de ser reelecto