The President of the United States can serve only two terms. Why?

Why this is the answer

The two-term limit comes from the 22nd Amendment, and USCIS accepts either that answer or the reason behind it: to keep the president from becoming too powerful. The amendment says no person can be elected President more than twice. For most of American history the limit was only a custom. George Washington set it by stepping down after two terms, and the 2008 study lessons describe that choice as an example to future leaders of voluntarily giving up power. Presidents kept to the tradition until Franklin Roosevelt, who was elected four times and served from 1933 until he died in office in 1945, through the Great Depression and World War II. Congress passed the 22nd Amendment in 1947, and the states ratified it in 1951, turning the custom into law. Roosevelt's four elections were the one break in the tradition, and the amendment followed within a few years of his death. The text has a detail that surprises many readers. Someone who serves more than two years of a term to which another person was elected, as a Vice President who takes over might, can be elected only once in their own right. Someone who serves two years or less can still be elected twice. So the longest anyone can hold the office is ten years: up to two years of a predecessor's term plus two full terms. The amendment also exempted the President in office when Congress proposed it. The reason goes back to the Constitutional Convention. The study guide says the Founders feared that a President with too much power would be above the law and could become a king or queen. A term limit is one more guard against that. In the interview either answer is enough, and you do not need to explain both. The common error is naming the wrong amendment, or saying the Supreme Court decided it. Linking the numbers helps: the 22nd Amendment, two terms.