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Presidents who lost the popular vote
The Electoral College and popular vote have only misaligned five times throughout 200 years of presidential elections.
LOS ANGELES - While Donald Trump is projected to lose his reelection bid against Democratic rival Joe Biden in the 2020 election, it does not necessarily mean the end of the 45th president’s political aspirations.
Could a Trump 2024 campaign be on the horizon? Legally, there’s nothing stopping him.
If Trump loses, according to the U.S. Constitution, he would be able to seek election again in 2024.
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New Yorkers celebrate as Joe Biden is declared winner of the 2020 presidential election.
Biden’s victory came after days of uncertainty as election officials sorted through a surge of mail-in votes that delayed the processing of some ballots. Biden crossed 270 Electoral College votes with a projected win in Pennsylvania.
Can Donald Trump run in 2024?
The 22nd Amendment states, “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.” But there is no limit to how many times a candidate can run, and there wouldn’t be anything legally stopping Trump from attempting a come back if he should lose this year.
Trump most certainly would not be the first president to pursue such aspirations.
Gover Cleveland became president in 1884, lost his reelection bid against Benjamin Harrison in 1888, then won again in 1892 — defeating Harrison, the incumbent president.
Bryan Lanza, a former Trump adviser, spoke on BBC Radio 4 program, saying he thinks Trump would be in a good position four years from now, the Independent reported.
“Biden will have the opportunity to guide this country out of COVID, and we’ll see what his successes and failures are. And there’s nobody in the Republican Party that can challenge President Trump in the primaries,” Lanza said.
Even Trump’s former chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, thinks Trump could have another shot at the White House in the wake of his projected 2020 loss.
“I would absolutely expect the president to stay involved in politics and would absolutely put him on the shortlist of people who are likely to run in 2024,” Mulvaney said in a webinar for Institute for International and European Affairs, the Irish Times reported.
Mulvaney, who also served as Trump's director of the Office of Management and Budget before taking on his current role as the U.S. Special Envoy for Northern Ireland, noted that the president did not like losing and would be as old as Democratic nominee Joe Biden is now should he run again in four years.
“It should not surprise anybody that there are lawyers and that there are lawsuits and it is not a tacit admission of loss, any more than it is a declaration of victory,” Mulvaney told the Irish Times.
The Associated Press and Catherine Park contributed to this story.