Congress passed the 22nd Amendment in 1947, creating a two-term limit for American presidents as a check on the power of America’s chief executive.
But President Trump has not ruled out seeking a third term in office even though the Constitution does not allow it.
Here’s what to know about presidential term limits and why they exist.
Has the U.S. always had term limits?
Until Congress passed the 22nd Amendment, presidents had largely recognized the precedent established by the nation’s first president, George Washington. In 1796, he declined to seek a third term in office, citing the importance of peaceful transfers of power and the potential for presidential tyranny.
Washington’s decision was seen at the time as a guard against the dangers of autocracy, from which the young republic had recently sought to freed itself by declaring independence from the British Empire in 1776.
Did any presidents try to break with tradition?
Washington’s two-term precedent didn’t stop some of his successors from trying for a third.
After serving two consecutive presidential terms, from 1901 to 1909, Theodore Roosevelt returned to the campaign trail in 1912 as a third-party candidate seeking a third term. He was unsuccessful. Before that, Ulysses S. Grant, the former Civil War general, had sought a third term in 1880, but his party declined to give him the nomination.