President Donald Trump discussed his thoughts on a potential successor for the first time during an interview with NBC’s “Meet The Press” on Sunday.
Host Kristen Welker asked the president if he actually wants to run for a third term. The president has joked about the prospect dating back to his first term in the White House, when he published a video showing oscillating campaign signs for “Trump 2028, Trump 2032, Trump 2036” and so forth.
While president’s are barred from running for more than two terms in the White House under the 22nd Amendment, at least one Republican lawmaker has called for an exception. Rep Andy Ogles (R-TN) introduced a bill earlier this year that would allow a two-term president to have the opportunity to serve one more term if their previous two were not served consecutively.
Before Trump’s historic victory in November, only President Grover Cleveland had the distinction of serving two terms out of order.
“Are you seriously considering a third term?” Welker asked Trump during Sunday’s interview.
“I will say this. So many people want me to do it. I have never had requests so strong as that. But it’s something that to the best of my knowledge, you’re not allowed to do,” the president responded. “I don’t know if that’s constitutional that they’re not allowing you to do it or anything else, but there are many people selling the 2028 hat. But this is not something I’m looking to do.”
Trump, who has largely remained hush when asked about his eventual successor, stated that he eventually wishes to turn things over to “ideally, a great Republican to carry it forward.”
After repeating her question on the prospect of a third term and receiving the same answer, Welker noted that Trump has “transformed” the Republican Party to align with his America First agenda. Trump responded to sharing his thoughts on his eventual successor for the first time.
“I think it’s so strong. And I think we’s so strong and I think we have tremendous people. I think we have a tremendous group of people. We talked about a number of them,” he said. “You look at Marco, you look at J.D. Vance, who’s fantastic.”
Trump added that he could think of “10, 15, 20 people right now” who could be his eventual successor. “No, I think we have a tremendous party. And you know what I can’t name? I can’t name one Democrat. I mean, I look at the Democrats, they’re in total disarray,” the president added, pointing to the foul-mouthed Jasmine Crockett as an example of Democrat incompetence.
“They have a new person named Crockett. I watched her speak the other day. She’s definitely a low IQ person. And they said, she’s the future of the party. I said, ‘you have to be kidding.’ I don’t know what they’re going to do,” Trump said.