A Number of Former Presidents Have Spoken Out Against Term Limits

President Donald Trump has teased the idea of running for a third term in the White House on multiple occasions.

Running for a third term, of course, is barred by the 22nd Amendment, which states that "no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.."

People have criticized Trump for joking about running for a third term, but this isn't the first time that a President has joked or mused about a third term in the White House.

In fact, only one President - President Thomas Jefferson - was strongly supportive of the idea of term limits. President Jefferson said that "my opinion originally was that the President of the United States should have been elected for 7 years, and forever ineligible afterward.. the service for 8 years, with a power to remove at the end of the first four, comes nearly to my principle as corrected by experience."

Many people believe that President George Washington was in favor of term limits, but this isn't the case. Washington decided not to run for a third term in the White House because he was exhausted and tired of personal attacks. This "set the standard" for term limits until FDR won four straight elections in the 1930s and 1940s.

A number of former Presidents have lined up to argue against term limits.

President Harry S. Truman said that the 22nd Amendment was "stupid" and that "there are clearly times when more than two terms are both necessary and wise."

President Ronald Reagan said that the 22nd Amendment was "an infringement on the democratic rights of the people", and that he was going to see "if I can't mobilize the people to demand a repeal of that Amendment."

President Dwight D. Eisenhower said that the 22nd Amendment "put an artificial restriction on a president's ability to complete his programs. President Eisenhower also teased the idea of running as Vice President.

President Bill Clinton, on multiple occasions (Rolling Stone interview in 2000, CBS News debate with Bob Dole in 2009, 2011 appearance on "Morning Joe" in 2011), said that two-term Presidents should be allowed to run again after taking some time off from the office.

There have been over 50 attempts to repeal the 22nd Amendment, including attempts from both the Democrats and Republicans.

The fact of the matter is that if your party has a popular President in his second term (Reagan, Clinton), you will want the 22nd Amendment to be repealed, and the other party likely won't support it.



Filed under: General Knowledge