Former President Donald Trump sparked controversy by openly discussing a potential third term as president during remarks at the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual meeting.
“FDR served almost 16 years—he had four terms. I’m not sure if we will be considered a three-term or two-term presidency,” Trump asked.
Several attendees were heard chanting back, “Three.”
Under the 22nd Amendment, enacted in the 1950s, no one can be elected to the presidency more than twice.
Former President Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidential election four times before the Constitution was amended. He died in office in 1945.
Trump previously dismissed the idea of trying to scrap the 22nd Amendment.
“I wouldn’t be in favour of it at all. I intend to serve four years and do a great job. And I want to bring our country back. I want to put it back on the right track. Our country is going down. We’re a failing nation right now. We’re a nation in turmoil,” he told Time Magazine last month.
He also ruled out pursuing a third term during an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” last September.
If he wins and serves a second term, he will be 82 at its conclusion, taking President Biden’s title as the oldest president in US history.
Trump has occasionally floated the idea of running for a third term on the campaign trail.
“We are going to win four more years,” Trump declared at a rally in Wisconsin back in 2020. “And then after that, we’ll go for another four years because they spied on my campaign. We should get a redo of four years.”
Last year, Trump also roiled his rivals by suggesting that he would only want to be a dictator for one day.
Trump’s remarks Saturday came in Dallas to address gun rights supporters and saw him take shots at President Biden and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom he bashed as “radical left.”
“If the Biden regime gets four more years, they are coming for your guns,” Trump warned.
“Crooked Joe Biden has a 40-year record of trying to rip firearms out of the hands of law-abiding citizens.”
The 45th president also once again scored the NRA’s endorsement. The group previously backed him in 2016 and 2020.
“The endorsement of the proud patriots of the NRA. These are great patriots. These are great people. We’re going to do things like nobody can believe,” Trump declared.
During his address, Trump vowed to fire the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and scrap Biden administration policies on firearms.
“In my second term, we will roll back every Biden attack on the Second Amendment. The attacks are coming fast and furious,” Trump said.
Vice President Kamala Harris quickly slammed Trump’s remarks.
“It is clear that Donald Trump meant it when he said that Americans fed up with horrific gun violence should simply ‘get over it,'” Harris said in a statement.
“President Biden and I have sat with grieving families, and the thought of telling them to ‘get over it’ is excessive. Joe Biden and I are working together on common-sense solutions to this national epidemic.”
