Has any president ever served a third term?

Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms. He won the presidency in 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944, dying in office in April 1945 during his fourth term. Before Roosevelt, the two-term limit was a tradition dating to George Washington's voluntary retirement in 1797, but it was not law.

Roosevelt's extended tenure was controversial. Congress responded after World War II by passing what became the 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951, which made the two-term limit a constitutional requirement for all future presidents.

Since 1951, no president has served - or could legally serve - a third elected term. Several popular two-term presidents (Eisenhower, Reagan, Clinton, Obama, George W. Bush) were constitutionally barred from seeking a third term and did not attempt one.

Occasional public discussion about whether a particular president 'should' run for a third term is politically meaningful as a gauge of popularity, but legally the question is settled: the 22nd Amendment bars it, and any legal argument claiming otherwise is outside the constitutional mainstream.