Only one person in the history of the United States has challenged the example of the period set by the first president, George Washington. The voters responded by preventing future presidents from electing more than twice.
President Donald Trump alluded to legal arguments inHe suggested over and over againHe can search for a third state. Besides the long -length challenge of the American constitution, Trump’s movement to run in 2028 would challenge a precedent that voters have repeatedly supported the voters when providing the opportunity.
Below is an explanation of the historical and legal traditions behind the presidency, as it is a job with a maximum of two periods and only two periods.
Washington has set an example of voluntary limits
It seemed that a relevant conclusion that Washington, the president of the 1787 conference that resulted in the United States’ constitution, would also become the first executive in the country, even when opposed to study had been worried about his re -election again and again, to become almost by adapting.
Washington began his presidency in 1789, when he led the executive branch of the government that the authors of the constitution were balanced with two others: Congress and the judiciary.
Besides these structural guards against the concentrations of power, Washington put its military overall and the title, chose the official era and the honor of the “President” to confirm his status as an elected civilian. He thought of not re -elected. EvenJames Madison draft farewell addressBefore he eventually sought to win another term in 1792.RetireFrom public life.
There was no legal barrier on Washington’s third term. But his decision put a tone. Four of the next six presidents won a second term, but they passed a third. The last of this group, Andrew Jackson, was the first president who did not work with or knew Washington. However, by the time Jackson admitted behind him, Martin van Burin, there are two periods that are the standard.
He paid a few against the Washington base – and they failed
Historians discussed whether Abraham Lincoln had followed a third term after the civil war if he was not assassinated in 1865 at the beginning of his second term.
Olyles S. led. Grant, the general war of war in Lincoln and the president from 1869 to 1877, the initial vote for Republican delegates at their conference in 1880. But he could not win a majority.
Theodore Roosevelt, the elected vice president in 1901, occupied almost a full presidential period after the death of William McKinley in 1901. When Roosevelt was elected in 1904, he promised that he would not run for what he called a third term.
The delegates chanted at the 1908 Republican Conference “another four years”, but Roosevelt kept his word. He declined in 1912 but lost the nomination for his successor, the current William Howard Taft. Roosevelt launched a failed campaign for the third party and lost by critics for his third -term broken promise. onePolitical cartoonThe ghost of George Washington is depicted by Roosevelt.
FDR used World War II to win additional terms
In 1940, Franklin Dylano Roosevelt became the only president to successfully won in a third election, as he did this with the outbreak of World War II in Europe eventually entering the United States.
Costomer Hw Brands has caused FDR that the global conflict “is an opportunity to write its name in bold messages throughout the history of the world.” But the thirty -second president took care of his decision as a decision of necessity, not ambition. “Specifically when he was determined to try a third, unclear term,” Brands wrote. “He did not reveal his thinking about this topic.”
Roosevelt avoided journalists’ questions about his plans in 1940.Tell the delegatesFDR: “The president had no desire or purpose today in the office.
But at the same time, as well as FDR, the mayor of Chicago Ed Kelly was a delegate of the president. After securing the nomination of the third Grant and his far cousin, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR fadedBefore it in a radio address:
He said: “I had to confess to myself, and now I remember you, that my conscience would not allow me to operate my back when inviting to service.” “The right to conduct this invitation depends on people through the American way of free elections. Only the people themselves can formulate the president.”
Voters Roosevelt were re -elected twice – but they have never decided again
FDR won two other periods, but not without critics. First Vice President, John Nans Garner, sought to nominate in 1940 in Chicago. Some of the Capitol Hill allies quietly grumbling as well as a personality they saw is very tightly.
While Roosevelt won the ground collapses at the electoral college in each of its four victories, his share of popular vote was 60.8 % in 1936 to 54.7 % in 1940 and 53.4 % in 1944.
Roosevelt died in April 1945. Vice President Harry Truman replaced him.
Soon after the death of Roosevelt, Congress began to consider what became the twenty -second amendment, which limits presidents in the elections. Without Truman, legislators who worked at that time gave while he was also bending a narrow way to a person to serve more than eight years: a person who ascends from the deputy presidency for less than half a period, still wins and serves two full periods of his own.
Truman, who almost served all the state of Fran Futhaza, immediately, immediately, immediately, immediately from another state in 1952. But in a sharp defeat of the sitting president, he lost the preliminary elections in New Hampshire – and quickly announced that he would not search for another period.
Each future president is obligated to the twenty -second amendment
Lindon Johnson met a similar fate after 16 years. Since he served less than half of the John F. Kennedy, Johnson was still eligible to elect twice. He won a landslide in 1964 for a full period. But the Vietnam war moved away from his popularity after that.
Johnson performed a weak performance in New Hampshire on March 12, 1968. On March 31, he told a national TV audience, “I will not seek, and I will not accept my party’s nomination for another period as your president.”
There has been an accidental talk about canceling the amendment 22 since then.
President Ronald Reagan, another president for a long time, supported the cancellation publicly, and told one of the interview, according to the New York Times, that he “will not do it myself, but for the presidents from here.”
Trump, on the other hand, explains that any changes in law or traditions will be in his favor.
“I am not joking,” he told NBC News. “There are ways you can do.”
This story was originally shown on Fortune.com
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