No president of the United States is supposed to serve more than two full terms, but this amendment hasn’t always been in place. Even before it was established in 1951, only one person had spent more than two terms in the White House, but can you guess who and for how long?
Franklin D. Roosevelt remains the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to stay in the White House for more than two terms. The 32nd president of the United States stayed in office from 1933 until his death in 1945, and several factors contributed to his long reign.
Roosevelt spent his initial two terms in office combating the Great Depression, and the surveys often rank him among the top three presidents for leading the country out of this crisis. He shifted focus to America’s involvement in World War II during his third and fourth term, but he never managed to see it through after passing away in April 1945, just a few months before the war came to a close.
Roosevelt’s record will most likely never be broken, thanks to the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution. It was ratified in 1951 and prohibits anyone who has been elected president twice from being elected again.