WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has frequently hinted that he wants to seek a third term, publishing posts about mounting another campaign, donning 2028 hats and discussing ways to achieve it, even as he has acknowledged that the Constitution prohibits it. But lately, Trump has begun to show signs that even he doesn’t really believe another run will happen. During recent speeches, the Republican president has begun to describe life after the White House when his term ends in January 2029, predicting that he will be home and dying while his successor takes credit for his achievements. “Your next president will say, ‘What a great job I did,’” Trump said at an event in Long Island, New York, this month. “He’ll be sitting there watching TV. He’s a real stiff. Unless you vote Republican, of course.” A sitting president talking about becoming a former president is always politically tense. But with just nine weeks left until the midterm elections, Trump is approaching the point in his presidency when there will be increasing reminders that his power will soon wane. Being willing to say he is contemplating a White House without him marks a notable shift for Trump. Returning to his first term and practically from the moment he won a second, he left the door open to remaining in office for more than eight years. “It’s everywhere,” said Brian Kalt, a constitutional law professor at Michigan State University. “And what that does is it allows you to point to your own words to support any number of mutually exclusive things.” Trump can say, “‘Oh yeah, I made it clear I wasn’t going to run,'” Kalt said. “Or, if he decides he’s going to do it, he could say, ‘Well, you know, I never said I wouldn’t do it.'” Trump suggests his post-presidency may make him cry. The White House dismissed suggestions that Trump’s thoughts are increasingly focused on the time running out for his presidency and the legacy he will leave behind. Spokeswoman Olivia Wales said she is “fighting every day” to keep her promises to reduce violent crime, crack down on the U.S.-Mexico border and reduce prescription drug prices. “The only legacy President Trump cares about is making America greater than ever,” Wales said. Sign up for the Ground Game newsletter: your guide to the biggest stories in American politics, policy and elections. Still, hinting at how he will be remembered is something Trump is suddenly talking about a lot. During a recent rally in Pennsylvania, he said, “Whoever the next president is, he’s going to talk about how brilliant he is. And I’ll be home. And I’ll say, ‘That son of a bitch,’ because we got the job done.” A week later, in Georgia, Trump predicted that once his presidency is over, “I’ll just sit at home.” “Maybe I’m crying,” the president added, arguing that Democrats could retake the Senate and eliminate filibuster rules, making it easier to pass his key legislation. Then, in Michigan, Trump injected some doubt into whether he was ready to hand over the Oval Office and return to Florida. “In two and a half years, we may have a different president, may,” he said, emphasizing the “may.” “I’ll be sitting at home. I’ll be reading the papers. I’ll be watching TV,” Trump said, before attacking his predecessor, President Joe Biden. “And I’ll have some guy, like last time, a real idiot, stand up and say, ‘We’re doing record business.'” Trump’s mixed signals remain the most common. But even as he has begun to suggest he will step down from the presidency, Trump has also continued to hint at a re-election run in 2028. Addressing the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Association dinner last month, Trump joked, “Just like my presidency, the second time is always better” and that “the third time will be even better. I’m just kidding.” He later wore a 2028 campaign cap to finish the speech. The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution says that no one can be elected president more than twice. It was ratified in 1951, six years after the death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, months into his fourth term. Until Roosevelt, no other president had defied the tradition of resigning after two terms started by George Washington. Still, Trump had only been back in the White House a couple of months when he told NBC News, “There are methods that could” be used to seek a third term. He acknowledged that one method was to be Vice President JD Vance’s running mate in 2028 and then have Vance step aside if the pair won. “There are others too,” Trump said then, alluding to more options. He later told Time magazine, “There are some loopholes,” while saying he didn’t believe in using them. Since then, the president has often used his social media posts to promote “Trump 2028” logos with his “Make America Great Again” slogan. But Trump has also at times seemed definitive about the ban on him running again, recently acknowledging to reporters: “I would love to run, but the law is very strict.” Kalt wrote about a two-term president possibly returning to office by running for vice president in “Constitutional Cliffhangers: A Legal Guide for Presidents and Their Enemies.” “People tend to find, in Trump’s words, everything they want to hear,” he said. Trump May Be Fighting the Outgoing Duck Factor Second-term presidents often see their power and influence decline over the final two years, especially if their party suffers major midterm defeats. But Trump’s comments could also be a sign that he is thinking about cementing his legacy, a stage that many of his predecessors also reached. “All of them, particularly as they cross the middle of their second term, start to think about legacy,” said Paul Begala, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton. “Everyone banishes the word. I know Clinton and Bush, they said, ‘I can’t use the L-word.'” But they do it,” Begala said, referring to his former boss Clinton and President George W. Bush. “Everyone thinks about it. And the staff thinks about it and the Cabinet thinks about it.” In her final two years in office, Clinton threw herself into trying to negotiate a Middle East peace deal. Bush used the “run to the finish” motto during the final year of his presidency in 2008, and Biden adopted a “tread the treadmill” ethos after abandoning his reelection bid. Trump has leaned toward shaping the White House and Greater Washington in his own image, dating back to his days as a real estate developer in the New York of the 1970s and ’80s. He has ordered the erection of a towering arch near the Lincoln Memorial and restoration of city fountains, while building a courtyard with a rose garden and a helipad on the White House lawn and adding dozens of gilded touches to the building’s majestic interior and exterior. And then, there is the enormous ballroom that Trump has teams racing to finish in the face of legal challenges, a project that the president says will only be completed by the end of 2028, shortly before. to leave office. Because I will be here for a very short period of time” when the job is done, Trump recently told reporters in the Oval Office. “I’ll be there for four, five, six months. This is for future presidents.”
