Donald Trump repeated his well-known joke about a presidential candidacy in 2028 this Saturday, this time before the White House correspondents gathered at the rescheduled annual dinner of the association, where the president put on a red cap with the inscription "TRUMP 2028" and elicited laughter that, according to several media outlets present, gradually faded as his speech progressed.
"I want to announce my intention to run for a fourth term as president. I won three times, and I will do it again," Trump declared to the audience, in a statement he had rehearsed just days before.
It was not the first time that week. On Wednesday, July 23, during an event at Wheeler High School in Marietta, Georgia, Trump said, “I’m here to announce my candidacy,” before clarifying, “just kidding.” According to the EFE agency, the president repeated the joke at least twice in public appearances during that same week.
The argument that Trump uses to support the joke is that he has never acknowledged his defeat to the Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 elections, claiming electoral fraud without any evidence to support it. By claiming that victory, he counts three presidential wins —2016, 2020, and 2024— hence the reference to a "fourth term."
However, the joke encounters an insurmountable constitutional obstacle: the 22nd Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1951, prohibits the same person from being elected president more than twice. Trump, at 80 years old, is currently serving his second term (2025-2029), after having governed from 2017 to 2021.
Modifying that amendment would require a two-thirds vote from both chambers of Congress and ratification by three-quarters of the states—38 out of 50—a process that experts consider virtually unfeasible. Republican congressman Andy Ogles has proposed an initiative in this regard, but it has not progressed in Congress.
The dinner this Saturday was the rescheduled version of the original event from April 2026, which had to be canceled when a shooting near the Washington Hilton hotel forced the evacuation of Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and Vice President JD Vance. The Correspondents' Association then committed to rescheduling the event within 30 days.
Various media outlets described this Saturday's intervention as lengthy and combative, with jokes that "mostly fell flat." This is not the first time Trump has toyed with the idea of extending his time in power: since January 2025, he has mentioned repeatedly the possibility of a third term, and in February 2026 he avoided responding directly on whether he would remain in power after 2029.
In June, Trump spoke about potential Republican candidates to succeed him, mentioning Marco Rubio and JD Vance as options for 2028, which contrasts with his recurring jokes about maintaining his position indefinitely.
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