A U.S. president can only serve two terms because the Twenty-second Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1951, bars anyone from being elected president more than twice.1 Before that amendment, the two-term ceiling was only a tradition set by George Washington. It became binding law after Franklin Roosevelt won four consecutive presidential elections, which convinced lawmakers that no single person should hold executive power that long.
The Two-Term Tradition Before It Was Law
George Washington set the expectation. After serving two terms, he declined to seek a third in 1796, stepping aside voluntarily to signal that the presidency was not a lifetime appointment. In his farewell address, he said he had always hoped to return to private life and viewed his continued service as a duty rather than a desire.
Every president after Washington followed his lead for the next 144 years, treating two terms as the understood ceiling even though the Constitution set no limit. The norm carried real political weight. Ulysses Grant explored a third term in 1880 and was rebuffed by his own party. Theodore Roosevelt ran for a third term in 1912 on a third-party ticket and lost. Each test reinforced the idea that rotating leadership was foundational to the republic.
Why Franklin Roosevelt Changed the Calculation
Franklin Roosevelt broke the precedent by winning a third term in 1940 and a fourth in 1944. His extended tenure coincided with the Great Depression and World War II, periods when many voters preferred continuity over change. Roosevelt won his third election with roughly 55 percent of the popular vote and 449 electoral votes.
Even so, four terms rattled both parties. Supporters who valued his wartime leadership still worried about what a future, less scrupulous president might do with that kind of staying power. After Roosevelt died in office in April 1945, the push to formalize the two-term limit moved quickly. The Republican-controlled Congress passed the amendment in early 1947, with the House voting 285 to 121 in favor. Nine Senate Democrats from southern states joined a unanimous Republican caucus to send it to the states. By February 27, 1951, 41 state legislatures had ratified it, well over the three-fourths threshold required.
Harry Truman, the sitting president when Congress proposed the amendment, was exempted by its own text. He chose not to run again in 1952. Dwight Eisenhower, elected in 1952 and reelected in 1956, became the first president actually barred from seeking another term by the new rule.
What the Amendment Restricts
The core rule is straightforward: no one can be elected president more than twice. The amendment deliberately uses the word “elected,” which means the restriction targets the ballot box. A person who has already won two presidential elections cannot run for the office again. Popularity, national crisis, or political pressure cannot override the rule.
The amendment also addresses people who reach the presidency without winning it, like a vice president who takes over after a death or resignation. If a successor serves more than two years of the departed president’s term, that partial service counts as one full term for purposes of the limit, and the successor can then win only one election on their own. If the successor serves two years or less of the remaining term, the partial service does not count, and the successor remains eligible to win two full elections. That math creates a theoretical maximum of roughly ten years in office for any single person.
Whether the Two-Term Limit Can Be Repealed
It can, but the bar is extraordinarily high. Because the limit is in the Constitution itself, removing it would require a new constitutional amendment. Under Article V, that means either two-thirds of both the House and Senate must propose it, or two-thirds of state legislatures must call a convention. Three-fourths of the states, currently 38 out of 50, must then ratify the change. Only one amendment in American history has ever repealed another: the Twenty-first Amendment undid Prohibition in 1933.
Lawmakers have periodically introduced resolutions to modify or repeal the two-term limit, but none has come close to passing. In January 2025, a joint resolution was introduced in the House proposing to allow up to three terms, with a restriction against more than two consecutive terms. That resolution was referred to the Judiciary Committee and has not advanced. Amending the Constitution requires bipartisan supermajorities at both the federal and state level, which makes repeal of the two-term limit unlikely under current conditions.