Donald Trump was elected President of the United States of America for the second time, beating the Democratic candidate Kamala Harrisand will take office on Capitol Hill on January 20, 2025. According to the US Constitution, in fact, the mandate of the President and Vice President in office ends at noon on January 20, the date on which the mandate of the next President and Vice President begins. However, looking at the numbers of US Presidencies, they are 45 Presidents who held the role on 47 presidencies. How is this possible? In short, the presidents Grover Cleveland And Donald Trump they were elected twice, but with non-consecutive mandates. Let’s delve deeper into the question.
The office of President of the United States
The President of the United States plays the role of head of state and governmentas well as commander in chief of the armed forces. The mandate presidential term has a duration of four yearswith the possibility of re-election for one maximum of two terms. Thus we find presidencies that, even non-consecutively, have been renewed.
The maximum limit of two terms was only introduced in 1951, with the 22nd Amendment. Initially, in fact, the office of President of the United States it had no time limit and therefore it could have been replicated for an unlimited number of mandates. There are cases of this type, like the President Franklin Roosevelt who was President of the United States for four terms. In fact, he won the elections in 1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944remaining in office from 1933 to 1945 (in fact he died the year after his fourth re-election).
When does the office of President last in the USA: the 22nd amendment
The March 21, 1947 the United States Congress decided to introduce into the US Constitution the 22nd Amendmentwhich was ratified in 1951. This amendment provides that no President of the United States shall be elected for more than two termsexcept for those who were already in office at the time the article was approved. The amendment therefore did not apply to the then incumbent President Harry S. Trumanwho held the office for the entire term from 1945 to 1949. Furthermore, the 22nd amendment specifies that even those who hold a presidential term pending for more than two years cannot be elected President more than once.
“No person shall be elected to the Presidential office more than twice, and no person who has held such office or performed the duties of President for more than two years during the term of office of any other President shall be elected to the Presidential office more than once. This Article does not apply to any person in office at the time the Article was proposed by Congress and will not prevent a person from holding the presidential office or exercising the functions of the President during the period required for the Article to take effect, to maintain the office of President or acting President for the entire aforementioned period.”
Which US Presidents have served more than two terms
Grover Cleveland And Donald Trump they are the Presidents who in history have been elected twice, but with non-consecutive mandates. So there are a total of 47 Presidents but in reality 45. Grover Cleveland was elected President in 1885 until 1889 and later from 1893 al 1897. Donald Trump has held the office of President since 2017 to 2021 and will take office in January 2025 until 2028. In the event that the President elected pass away coinciding with the start of the mandate, will be the Vice President to fill this role. The same goes if the President-elect does not have i necessary requirements or if a President has not been elected: the Vice President will always fill the role until the new President is installed.
The inauguration of the American President: why January 20th
Although Donald Trump was elected on November 5, 2024his installation will take place on January 20, 2025. This is because there is a period, known as “transition”in which the new President appoints ministers, forms the government and prepares the actions and guidelines of his mandate. But it wasn’t always like this: in the past the presidential mandate it began and ended The March 4. It was with the ratification of 20th Amendment in 1933 that it was decided to start the presidential mandate on January 20thto avoid leaving the charge uncovered for such a long period, of four monthsfrom November to March.
In ancient times this period was justified because, when George Washington was elected the first President of the United States in 1789The government of the United States was located in New York and not in Washington like today and therefore served the travel time necessary to reach dai 13 states the center of New York, which with the logistics and technology of the time was much longer and more cumbersome. From this therefore also the procedures hey logistical times for the presidential inauguration they were calculated differently.
