Marrakech – US President Donald Trump joked about seeking a third term as he addressed a rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Friday, three months after the annual gala was disrupted by an assassination attempt. The 80-year-old returned to a smaller venue, the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Washington, under heightened security.
Trump opened on a conciliatory note, reflecting on the April attack that forced his evacuation. “The show must go on,” he told the room. But he quickly pivoted to attacking a range of perceived enemies, beginning with journalists before turning to Democratic opponents.
The president revived talk of a banned third term, insisting he was joking. “Just like my presidency, the second time is always better. And the third time is better yet,” he remarked, before adding, “I’m only kidding.”
He later doubled down, pulling out a red “Trump 2028” cap and announcing his “intention to run for a fourth term as president of the United States.” He joked that he had “won three times” and was “getting very good at running for president.”
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In fact, Trump has consistently claimed that he performed well in his 2020 reelection campaign but lost because of alleged electoral fraud.
Trump also mocked the media, claiming he receives “93% negative publicity.” “This place is really the largest group of Trump derangement syndrome people ever put together at one time,” he told the gala.
He shook hands with a Wall Street Journal team honored for reporting on his ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, then quipped that “this has not been an easy evening, all these awards.”
He closed the hour-long speech with a barb, telling journalists, “When I’m gone you’re all going to be broke,” and calling the night “far worse than I actually thought.”
The dinner celebrated press freedom after the first event was cancelled by gunfire. Outgoing WHCA President Weijia Jiang of CBS News vowed reporters would not be intimidated.
“We are back. We will not be intimidated. We will not let an act of violence have the final word,” she declared. Incoming president Jacqui Heinrich confirmed the gala would return next year to the Washington Hilton, the scene of the April shooting.
Roughly 700 people attended, down from more than 2,000 in April. Several blocks around the hotel were sealed off, with police and National Guard present, and guests were screened twice with QR codes and IDs. Trump honored Secret Service officer Victor Gonzales, who was shot at a checkpoint and credited with stopping the attack. He survived wearing a protective vest.
California man Cole Tomas Allen, 31, has pleaded not guilty to charges including attempting to assassinate the president. Secret Service Director Sean Curran defended the original response, noting that current threats against top officials were “off the charts.”
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The joke about another term touches a constitutional limit. The 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951, states that “no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”
The restriction followed Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the only president to win four elections, who died three months into his fourth term in 1945. Before that, the two-term custom held since George Washington refused a third term in 1796.
Amending the Constitution would require two-thirds approval from both chambers of Congress and three-quarters of the states. Republicans control Congress but lack those majorities, and Democrats hold 18 of 50 state legislatures.
In January 2025, Tennessee Representative Andy Ogles proposed a resolution to allow presidents who served two nonconsecutive terms to seek a third, a change that would apply only to Trump. Former strategist Steve Bannon has insisted Trump will be president in 2028.
Trump was the 45th and is the 47th president. He first won in 2016, then returned for a second, nonconsecutive term in 2024. He has repeatedly floated staying beyond two terms despite the 22nd Amendment, at times calling it a joke and at times using it to needle and antagonize his opponents in the confrontational style critics call “owning the libs.”
Some supporters point to a succession theory, in which Trump would run as vice president to another candidate who then resigns, letting him take over.
Legal scholars reject the argument, citing the 12th Amendment, which bars anyone ineligible for the presidency from serving as vice president. They say two terms in office rule out that path and find no credible legal basis for a third term.
