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Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
Donald Trump has long flirted with the idea of running for a third – or even fourth – term as US president, despite this being unconstitutional under the 22nd amendment. But now, at the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Friday, the 80-year-old jokingly declared his intentions to win a fourth presidential term (he counts his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden to be one of his previous three terms).
He told attendees: “Tonight, to show just how much I care about the press, and I want to save your ratings, I’m pleased to announce my intention to – and this is somewhat of a scoop – my intention to run for a fourth term as president of the United States.
“I won three times, now I’m going to do it again. It should be easy - I’ve gotten very good at running for president.
“I won three times, did very well the second time, by the way – a rigged election, but we don’t have to talk about it.”
President Donald Trump puts on a TRUMP 2028 hat while speaking during the re-scheduled White House Correspondents Dinner in the Presidential Ballroom at the Waldorf Astoria on July 24, 2026 in Washington, DC. The annual gala hosted by the White House Correspondents Association was re-scheduled to tonight after the original event in April was cut short when an armed man, later identified as Cole Tomas Allen, attempted to get past a Secret Service checkpoint. Photo by Eric Lee/Getty Images
Trump also sported a red Trump 2028 cap during the remarks, which sparked concern when they were first unveiled in May last year.
One month prior, he talked of a fourth term when he told reporters on board Air Force One: "I’ll tell you, I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term because the other election, the 2020 election was totally rigged.
"So it’s actually sort of a fourth term in a certain way. I just don’t want the credit for the second because [former President Joe] Biden was so bad, he did such a bad job, and I think that’s one of the reasons that I’m popular, if you want to know the truth."
In January, he took to Truth Social to claim there were “record numbers all over the place” and asked: “Should I try for a fourth term?”
Two months later, he posted on his platform calling for a third term “as a reward for a stolen election”.
In May, he suggested he may still be president in 2028 and 2036, and earlier this week he said he would like to be the next president.
But it’s his comments at the dinner which have sparked considerable criticism online:
“People thinking that Trump is joking about running or a fourth term are really not paying attention,” wrote one account:
And another tweeted: “It’s always a joke until it’s real”:
The dinner took place on Friday night after the original event was cancelled following reports of gunshots at the venue.
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