By: HISTORY.com Editors

2024

Donald Trump becomes second president elected to a nonconsecutive term

Published: August 25, 2025Last Updated: August 25, 2025

Four years after leaving the White House, former President Donald Trump is elected to a second term in office, becoming the first president to serve nonconsecutive terms since 1892.  

Trump was first elected president in 2016, when he narrowly defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton through the Electoral College to win the White House. After a tumultuous four years in office that included two impeachments (acquitted both times by the Senate), Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to former Vice President Joe Biden. On January 6, 2021, an angry mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building. Three years later, Trump was once again chosen as the Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election.  

Months before Election Day, incumbent President Joe Biden stepped down as the Democratic candidate—the first to do so since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968—and was replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump soundly defeated Harris on November 5, 2024, becoming the second president in U.S. history to serve nonconsecutive terms and the first in more than a century.  

Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th president, was the only other president to lose the nation’s highest office and then win it back. Cleveland won his first term in 1884 and his second in 1892. In between, he lost reelection to Benjamin Harrison in 1888.  

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Citation Information

Article title
Donald Trump becomes second president elected to a nonconsecutive term
Website Name
History
Date Accessed
August 25, 2025
Publisher
A&E Television Networks
Last Updated
August 25, 2025
Original Published Date
August 25, 2025

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