US President-elect Donald Trump suggested on Wednesday that he could be open to a constitution-breaking third term in office, in remarks made to House Republicans ahead of the start of his second term.
“I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say, ‘He’s good, we got to figure something else,'” Trump provocatively told his audience in a downtown Washington hotel, drawing some laughter from supporters.
Back in Washington for the first time since his election victory, Trump told the GOP lawmakers, “It’s nice to win.”
Trump received a standing ovation from House Republicans, many of whom took cellphone videos of him as ran through their party’s victories up and down the ballot, in what would be, under the constitutional limits, his final presidential election.
The Republican returned to Washington after defeating his Democrat rival Kamala Harris.
After his speech to GOP lawmakers, Trump made his way to the White House.
President Joe Biden welcomed Trump to the White House where both leaders assured there would be a “peaceful transition of power”.
The current president inviting the president-elect has been customary practice to ensure peaceful handoff of power. However, this was not done by Trump four years agon when he lost to the Democrats.
Earlier in 2016, Trump met President Barack Obama in the Oval Office after his victory when he defeated Hillary Clinton, describing it as “a great honour.” However, he subsequently resumed criticising Obama, including unsubstantiated allegations of campaign surveillance.
Trump contested his 2020 defeat to Biden, persistently making unfounded claims about voter fraud. He neither invited then President-elect Biden to the White House nor attended his inauguration – the first such absence since Andrew Johnson missed Ulysses S Grant’s ceremony 155 years ago.
Biden however pledged full cooperation for a smooth transition to Trump’s administration, despite having campaigned extensively against Trump, portraying him as a threat to democratic values.