On Monday, Donald Trump addressed 130 small business owners at the White House about capital investment deductions. He ended up telling them he would be in office for another eight or nine years. The applause was loud; however, the U.S. Constitution says otherwise.
The provision in question was a 100% first-year capital investment deduction running for a decade. Trump was explaining this to the room when the ten-year timeline gave him an idea.
“When I get out of office in, let’s say, eight or nine years from now, I’ll be able to use it myself,” he said. The crowd laughed and cheered.
🇺🇸 President Trump says he’ll get out of office “eight or nine years from now” pic.twitter.com/f4pEErw4Rq
— Day Trading News (@dayxtrading) May 4, 2026
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Nine more years would place his departure in 2034, at age 88, which is a timeline that assumes several things about his health that his own physician has not confirmed.
Since returning to office in January 2025, Trump has floated the idea of a third term more than once, each time generating a different mix of applause and alarm.
The rest of the speech covered equally memorable ground. Trump called the Iran war a “mini war,” proposed painting the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool “American flag blue,” ranted about his White House ballroom, and repeated his claim of acing three cognitive tests.
At a Florida rally on Friday, he told the crowd that many of them could not have identified a giraffe on the same test. The small business audience was spared that particular assessment.
Trump also used the occasion to revisit two of his favorite unverified figures. “They said oil was going to go to $300 a barrel. Can you imagine? $300 a barrel,” he told the crowd, framing the prediction as something that never materialized thanks to his handling of the conflict.
He also repeated his claim that he has secured $18 trillion in foreign investment commitments for the United States, a figure that has appeared in multiple speeches without a breakdown of how it was calculated or verified. Neither number has been independently confirmed by economists, analysts or any foreign government.
Meanwhile, the legal backdrop remains unchanged. The 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951 specifically to prevent indefinite presidential tenure, has a departure date of January 2029 in mind for Trump. He has previously suggested the amendment may not apply to him.
Featured image via X screengrab
