WASHINGTON — Top Republicans on Capitol Hill poured cold water on President Donald Trump's talk of a potential third term, downplaying the prospect that he would pursue it.
Several lawmakers insisted that Trump wasn't serious about it, even though he told NBC News on Sunday that he's "not joking" about wanting another term, which is barred under the 22nd Amendment, and that “there are methods" to be able to run again.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Monday when he was asked whether he believes Trump, 78, can serve a third term: "Not without a change in the Constitution.”
He added that Trump doesn't appear serious about that.
“I think that you guys keep asking the question and I think he’s probably having some fun with it, probably messing with you," Thune told reporters.
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Another top Republican said the Constitution is clear on the matter.
“Read the Constitution,” said Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the Senate president pro tempore and chair of the Judiciary Committee.
Asked again whether he believes it's not an option for Trump, Grassley said: “I shouldn’t have to answer that. Read the Constitution.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who ran for president against Trump in 2016, gave a similar answer. “The 22nd Amendment is clear and unequivocal,” Cruz said in a brief interview Monday.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., a close Trump ally, said Trump “can say he’s not joking, but it’s tongue in cheek of the president.”
“I’ve known him for a long time, and I consider him a friend, Mullin told NBC News.
Asked whether he would object if Trump sought a third term, Mullin replied: “I don’t play hypotheticals, guys.”
Across the Capitol in the House, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., dismissed the idea, suggesting that Trump floats ideas and concepts not necessarily with the hope of achieving them but to get discussions going.
“I don’t know what he was referring to. I never saw it,” Scalise said when he was asked about Trump’s comments. “But, you know, you see it like with Greenland, like with Panama Canal. There’s a lot of things the president talks about. Ultimately, it gets people talking and addresses some other issues, too.”
Pressed whether he would support changing the Constitution to let Trump run for a third term, Scalise quickly dismissed the idea. “There’s no proposal to change the Constitution right now," he said.
But at least one Republican is taking Trump seriously — and literally — about a potential third term. Rep. Andy Ogles, of Tennessee, introduced a constitutional amendment three days after Trump was sworn in this year. The amendment would allow presidents to serve a maximum of three terms, with the caveat that the president would no longer be eligible after having been elected to two consecutive terms.
"He has proven himself to be the only figure in modern history capable of reversing our nation’s decay and restoring America to greatness, and he must be given the time necessary to accomplish that goal," Ogles said upon introducing the measure.
The measure is extremely unlikely to pass, as it would require the support of two-thirds of the House and the Senate, as well as three-fourths of state legislatures. Democrats could easily block it in Congress.
"The Constitution isn’t optional, sir. This isn’t a reality show — it’s reality. Two terms, that’s it," Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said on X in response to Trump's comments.
In recent months, Trump has repeatedly raised the specter of a third term. During House Republicans' Jan. 27 retreat at Trump's resort in Doral, Florida, he mused before the television cameras about another term in the White House.
Specifically, Trump asked Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., a former constitutional lawyer: “Am I allowed to run again?”
But he quickly added, “Mike, I better not get you involved in that."
The remarks elicited laugher from Johnson and other Republicans in the room, who brushed it off as a joke. It “was clearly tongue in cheek," Johnson said the next day.
Days before his comments at Doral, Trump joked to a crowd of supporters in Las Vegas: “It will be the greatest honor of my life to serve not once, but twice or three times or four times."
And shortly after he defeated Kamala Harris in November, a triumphant Trump huddled with House Republicans on Capitol Hill and told them, “I suspect I won’t be running again — unless you do something."
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said the chances of Trump’s running for a third term are extremely low and suggested his comments have more to do about staying "politically relevant" given his limitations.
"I've learned never to dismiss out of hand anything the president says, but it would take a constitutional amendment, and I think it's unlikely we get the Democratic support, state by state, that that would require," Cole told NBC News on Monday.
Cole added: "Look, a lot of this is about keeping yourself politically relevant. ... We made a decision as a country that two term limits seems to be the appropriate limit. I think it's going to be very hard for anyone to break that."
An idea bouncing around Washington is that Vice President JD Vance could run in 2028, name Trump his running mate and then resign after they are sworn in, handing the presidency back to Trump.
Cole called that idea "interesting" but "too fanciful to really discuss seriously at this point."
