Uploaded January 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
For almost all of United States history Presidents have only served two terms. The only president to serve three or more terms was 32nd President Franklin D. Roosevelt who won a total of four presidential elections.
The two term tradition was started by 1st President George Washington. After unanimously winning in the election of 1788 and the election of 1792 President George Washington declined to seek the executive office a third time in the election of 1796 as he was exhausted from his eight year presidency and sought to return to his Mount Vernon home in Virginia.
3rd President Thomas Jefferson was the second president who had the chance to run for a third term in the election of 1808; however, he was opposed to the idea in principle. He saw excessive terms as being a quick path to something like monarchy.
4th and 5th Presidents James Madison and James Monroe both served two terms but helped to establish the two term principle by declining to seek another election.
While Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first president to actually win a third term by winning in the election of 1940 he was not the first president to try. Ulysses S. Grant had won to prior president elections in 1868 and 1872 yet he would try to run in the presidential election of 1876 and the election 1880. He very nearly may have succeeded if it were not for the efforts of people from within his own party such as James Blaine and John Sherman.
The fifth cousin of Franklin Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt would also try his hand at a third term in the presidential election of 1912 when he ran for the Progressive Party against Republican William Howard Taft and Democrat Woodrow Wilson.
In the election of 1928, Calvin Coolidge had a chance to run for a third term but declined uttering the controversial and famed phrase, "I do not chose to run."
Other presidents who tried for third terms include Harry S. Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson, but neither would succeed.
The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution was added in 1951 and prevented anyone from running for a third term unless one of their terms was a partial term under two years long. The amendment reads,
“No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice... No person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.”
Since the ammendment's passage presidents such as Harry Truman, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump have expressed interest in either its repeal or alteration, but no serious efforts to do so have made it very far.
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For your entertainment.
For almost all of United States history Presidents have only served two terms. The only president to serve three or more terms was 32nd President Franklin D. Roosevelt who won a total of four presidential elections.
The two term tradition was started by 1st President George Washington. After unanimously winning in the election of 1788 and the election of 1792 President George Washington declined to seek the executive office a third time in the election of 1796 as he was exhausted from his eight year presidency and sought to return to his Mount Vernon home in Virginia.
3rd President Thomas Jefferson was the second president who had the chance to run for a third term in the election of 1808; however, he was opposed to the idea in principle. He saw excessive terms as being a quick path to something like monarchy.
4th and 5th Presidents James Madison and James Monroe both served two terms but helped to establish the two term principle by declining to seek another election.
While Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first president to actually win a third term by winning in the election of 1940 he was not the first president to try. Ulysses S. Grant had won to prior president elections in 1868 and 1872 yet he would try to run in the presidential election of 1876 and the election 1880. He very nearly may have succeeded if it were not for the efforts of people from within his own party such as James Blaine and John Sherman.
The fifth cousin of Franklin Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt would also try his hand at a third term in the presidential election of 1912 when he ran for the Progressive Party against Republican William Howard Taft and Democrat Woodrow Wilson.
In the election of 1928, Calvin Coolidge had a chance to run for a third term but declined uttering the controversial and famed phrase, "I do not chose to run."
Other presidents who tried for third terms include Harry S. Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson, but neither would succeed.
The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution was added in 1951 and prevented anyone from running for a third term unless one of their terms was a partial term under two years long. The amendment reads,
“No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice... No person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.”
Since the ammendment's passage presidents such as Harry Truman, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump have expressed interest in either its repeal or alteration, but no serious efforts to do so have made it very far.
Patreon: patreon.com/resyndicated
YouTube - Shorts: youtube.com/channel/UCtwELRV4gjLBtQ-K4lqFrxw
Instagram: instagram.com/resyndicated
TikTok: tiktok.com/@resyndicated?
Rumble: rumble.com/c/c-1333341
Bitchute: bitchute.com/channel/yLvB6PbNYjib
For your entertainment.
