The term of office for President and Vice President is four years. George Washington, the first president, set an unofficial term limit of two terms, a precedent that subsequent presidents followed until 1940. Before
Franklin D. Roosevelt, several presidents had unsuccessfully campaigned for a third term. However, Roosevelt was elected four times, but died shortly after beginning his fourth term. In response, the
Twenty-second Amendment was ratified, barring anyone from being elected president more than twice, or once if that person served more than half of another president's term.
Harry S. Truman, who was President at the time of the amendment's ratification, and by the amendment's provisions exempt from its limitation, also briefly sought a third term before withdrawing from the
1952 election.
Since the amendment's ratification, four presidents have served two full terms:
Dwight D. Eisenhower,
Ronald Reagan,
Bill Clinton and
George W. Bush.
Jimmy Carter and
George H. W. Bush sought a second term, but were defeated.
Richard Nixon was elected to a second term, but resigned before completing it.
Lyndon B. Johnson was the only president under the amendment to be eligible to serve more than two terms in total, having served for only fourteen months following
John F. Kennedy's assassination. However, he chose not to run in the
1968 election.
Gerald Ford sought a full term after serving out the last two years and five months of Nixon's second term, but was not elected. He therefore became the fifth person to have served as President, but never been elected President. In addition, because Ford was not elected as
Vice President (he became Vice President via
Section 2 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment), Ford is also the only person to have served as President and Vice President, but never have been elected to either office.