You’ve probably sat through a high school civics class where they told you the President gets four years, maybe eight if they're lucky, and then they have to pack their bags. It feels like a law of nature. But if you look back at American history, the rules weren't always so set in stone.
So, have any presidents served 3 terms?
Yes. Just one. Franklin Delano Roosevelt—FDR to most—didn't just serve three terms; he actually won four consecutive elections. It’s a wild outlier in a system that usually prides itself on rotation. Before he came along, the "two-term limit" was basically just a gentleman’s agreement started by George Washington. Washington was tired. He wanted to go back to Mount Vernon. By stepping down after eight years, he set a massive precedent that everyone just... followed. Until the world started falling apart in the 1940s.
The Man Who Broke the Tradition
FDR took office in 1933 during the absolute gutter of the Great Depression. People were starving, banks were folding, and the "New Deal" was his aggressive, messy, and massive attempt to fix it. By the time 1940 rolled around, he had already served two terms. Normally, that’s when a president says their goodbyes.
But 1940 wasn't a normal year.
Europe was screaming. Hitler was tearing through France. The Pacific was a powder keg. Roosevelt argued that in a time of unprecedented global crisis, the United States couldn't afford a "change in horses in midstream." It was a controversial move. His opponents called him a wannabe dictator. Even some of his old allies thought he was overstepping. But the voters? They didn't care about the tradition as much as they cared about stability. He beat Wendell Willkie in a landslide to secure that third term.
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Then he did it again in 1944.
He was visibly ill by his fourth inauguration. Thin, gray, and exhausted. He died just months into that fourth term, leaving Harry Truman to finish the war and, eventually, deal with the fallout of the "President for Life" fears that FDR's long tenure had sparked.
Why Can't It Happen Now?
After FDR died, Congress looked at his twelve years in office and decided they never wanted to see that happen again. They weren't necessarily mad at FDR specifically, but the idea of a perpetual president scared the living daylights out of them.
Enter the 22nd Amendment.
Ratified in 1951, this is the legal wall that stops anyone from repeating FDR’s run. It’s pretty blunt. It says no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice. There’s a little bit of nuance for Vice Presidents who take over—if they serve more than two years of someone else's term, they can only be elected once on their own. If they serve less than two years, they can still go for two full terms of their own, potentially hitting ten years total.
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But three full elective terms?
Impossible. At least, without a new constitutional amendment, which is about as easy to pass these days as a law banning breathing.
The "Almost" Third Termers
FDR was the only one to actually pull it off, but he wasn't the only one who tried.
Ulysses S. Grant really wanted a third term. He served from 1869 to 1877, took a break to travel the world, and then came back in 1880 trying to get the Republican nomination. He failed. The party just wasn't feeling it.
Then there’s Teddy Roosevelt. He was a force of nature. He served nearly two full terms (taking over after William McKinley was assassinated) and then stepped down. But he got bored. Or maybe he just hated the way his successor, William Howard Taft, was running things. In 1912, he ran again under the "Bull Moose" party. He actually beat the sitting president (Taft) in the popular vote, but he split the Republican ticket so badly that the Democrat, Woodrow Wilson, walked right into the White House.
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Why the 22nd Amendment Still Sparks Debate
Some political scientists hate the term limit. They call it the "Lame Duck" amendment. The argument is that as soon as a president wins their second term, they lose their power. Everyone knows they're leaving. They can't threaten people with future political consequences.
On the flip side, most people think it’s the only thing keeping the U.S. from turning into a de facto autocracy. Without it, a truly popular (or truly populist) leader could theoretically hold the office for thirty years, building a patronage network that would be impossible to dismantle.
Honestly, the fact that only one person in over 240 years has served more than two terms is a testament to how much Americans usually value that rotation. FDR was the exception that proved the rule. He was the "Crisis President."
Summary of Term Lengths in History
- George Washington: Set the 2-term tradition.
- Theodore Roosevelt: Tried for a third (non-consecutive) term and lost.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt: The only president to serve 3 terms (and win a 4th).
- The 22nd Amendment: The law that ended the possibility of a 3-term presidency in 1951.
If you're looking at the current political landscape, you'll see people occasionally float the idea of repealing the 22nd Amendment. It usually happens when a party has a very popular incumbent they don't want to lose. But don't hold your breath. Amending the Constitution requires a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate, plus ratification by three-quarters of the states. In a polarized country, getting that many people to agree on the color of the sky is tough, let alone a massive change to the balance of power.
Next Steps for History Buffs
If you want to understand the mechanics of how this actually changed the country, you should look into the 1944 Election. It was the only time a president ran for a fourth term while actively hiding a terminal illness from the public. Reading the memoirs of Admiral Ross McIntire (FDR’s doctor) gives a pretty haunting look at the ethics of a third and fourth term when the leader’s health is failing. You might also find the Congressional debates of 1947 interesting—that’s where the actual text of the 22nd Amendment was hammered out by people who were genuinely terrified of "executive tyranny."
Check out the National Archives' digital collection on the 22nd Amendment if you want to see the original documents and the letters from citizens who either loved the idea of a "President for Life" or were absolutely disgusted by it.