Is Trump Eligible To Run For President Again If He Loses?

The November 3 polls has so far unfolded in the way 2020 has so far, with twists, turns, and general unpredictability. And there are no surprises there, since, as officials and media pundits are repeatedly pointing out, we're in a pandemic, and mail-in voting was exercised widely as an option (via The Washington Post). But in the event that President Donald Trump loses the election, is there a chance we could see a sequel to this presidency and can Trump run again in 2024?

The simple answer is yes — and that there is nothing in the Constitution that forbids that, because the 22nd Amendment only states: "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of President more than once." (via the National Constitution Center). This means if you won two back-to-back terms, like George W. Bush or Barack Obama did, you wouldn't be allowed to run a third time.  

If he managed to pull it off, Donald Trump wouldn't be the first person to serve two non-consecutive terms. Grover Cleveland is both the 22nd and the 24th president of the United States — he won his first term by a very narrow margin, and his second by beating both the incumbent and his successor, Benjamin Harrison, by a margin of 277 to 145 in the Electoral College. Cleveland was a Democrat who is both credited with restoring the power of the presidency, but also for triggering an economic downturn in 1893 (via Constitution Daily).

Unless something were to happen, Trump's envoy to Ireland Mick Mulvaney has already said that a Trump comeback is in the cards if he loses this election."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 to an Irish think tank (via The Irish Times).