Donald Trump has said he is “not joking” about wanting to serve a third term as US president.

The US Constitution says that “no person… shall be elected more than twice”, but some Trump supporters have suggested there could be ways around that.

Asked in an interview with NBC about the possibility of seeking a third term in the White House, Trump said “there are methods which you could do it”.

“I’m not joking… a lot of people want me to do it,” he added. “But, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.”

Trump, who would be 82 at the end of his second term, was asked whether he would want to keep serving in “the toughest job in the country”.

“Well, I like working,” he replied.

These were not his first comments on the topic. In January, he told supporters that it would be “the greatest honour of my life to serve not once, but twice or three times or four times”. However, he then said this was a joke for the “fake news media”.

On the face of it, the US Constitution seems to rule out anyone having a third term. The 22nd Amendment 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 the president more than once.”

Changing the constitution would require a two-thirds approval from both the Senate and the House of Representatives, as well as approval from three-quarters of the country’s state-level governments.

Trump’s Republican Party controls both chambers of Congress but does not have the majorities needed. Additionally, the Democratic Party controls 18 of the 50 state legislatures.

Trump supporters say there is a loophole in the constitution, untested in court.

They argue that the 22nd Amendment only explicitly bans someone being “elected” to more than two presidential terms – and says nothing of “succession”.

Under this theory, Trump could be the vice-presidential running-mate to another candidate – perhaps his own vice-president, JD Vance – in the 2028 election.

If they win, the candidate could be sworn into the White House and then immediately resign – letting Trump take over by succession.

Steve Bannon, the podcaster and prominent former Trump adviser, said he believed Trump would “run and win again”, adding there were “a couple of alternatives” in determining how.

Andy Ogles, a Tennessee Republican in the House of Representatives, introduced a resolution in January calling for a constitutional amendment to allow a president to serve up to three terms – as long as they were not consecutive.

This would mean that only Trump of all former surviving presidents would be eligible – Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W Bush all served consecutive terms, whereas Trump won in 2016, lost in 2020, and won again in 2024.

However, the high bar for constitutional amendments makes Ogles’ proposal a pipe dream – although it got people talking.

Democrats have deep objections.

“This is yet another escalation in his clear effort to take over the government and dismantle our democracy,” said Daniel Goldman, a New York Representative who served as lead counsel for Trump’s first impeachment.

“If Congressional Republicans believe in the Constitution, they will go on the record opposing Trump’s ambitions for a third term.”

Some within Trump’s party also think it’s a bad idea.

The Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin, of Oklahoma, said in February he would not back an attempt to put Trump back in the White House.

“I’m not changing the constitution, first of all, unless the American people chose to do that,” Mullin told NBC.

Derek Muller, an election law professor at the University of Notre Dame, said the Constitution’s 12th Amendment says “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of president shall be eligible to that of vice-president of the United States”.

That means serving two terms in office disqualifies anyone from running as a vice-presidential candidate, in his view.

“I don’t think there’s any ‘one weird trick’ to getting around presidential term limits,” he said.

Jeremy Paul, a constitutional law professor at Boston’s Northeastern University, told CBS New there were “no credible legal arguments” for a third term.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected four times. He died three months into his fourth term, in April 1945.

The Great Depression and the Second World War coloured Roosevelt’s time in office – and are often cited for his extended presidency.

At that time, the two-term limit on US presidents had not been written into law – it was instead a custom followed since George Washington refused a third term in 1796.

Roosevelt’s extended stewardship led to the tradition being codified into law in the 22nd Amendment in the early 1950s.

Three victims of a house fire at a converted railway station have been named as Mayci Fox, four, her mother Emma Conn, 30, and Louie Thorn, 23.

They died after a blaze at a Grade II listed property in Rushton, near Kettering, Northamptonshire, at about 22:30 GMT on Friday.

A 54-year-old man from Kettering who was arrested on suspicion of murder at the weekend was released without charge.

Det Ch Insp Ruby Burrow, of the East Midlands Special Operations Unit, said there was no evidence of “criminal wrongdoing”.

Mayci Fox and Emma Conn were from Desborough. Louie Thorn was from Rushton.

Formal identification has yet to take place, Northamptonshire Police said, but it was releasing the victims’ names with the agreement of the Coroner’s Office and the support of the families.

Officers are now trying to establish how the blaze may have started. Specialist fire investigators and investigation dogs are still at the scene.

Villagers told the BBC they had been “traumatised” by the incident and police said officers would be in the area to “provide reassurance”.

Kevin Abraham, a churchwarden of All Saints’ Rushton in the parish, said the close-knit community had been “knocked for six” by the blaze.

“It’s probably one of the worst things in living memory that has happened,” he added.

Drone pictures of the house show its roof has been severely damaged in the blaze.

It was previously the Glendon and Rushton railway station before it was converted for residential use.

It was granted Grade II listed status in 1981.

Phil Pells, from Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue service, said it was a “terrible incident”.

He continued: “The focus now is on ensuring we conduct a thorough investigation – along with the police – to determine a cause.”

Mr Pells thanked the community for their support and said the families of those affected were being helped by specialist officers.

The prime minister has told the makers of hit Netflix drama Adolescence that it was “really hard to watch” with his teenage children, as he hosted them in Downing Street to discuss the influence of toxic material online.

Sir Keir Starmer said the show, about a 13-year-old boy accused of murder, served as “a torch that shines intensely brightly on a combination of issues that many people don’t know how to respond to”.

But he warned there was not a “silver bullet response” or “some policy lever that can be pulled”.

The meeting came as Netflix said it would make the series available to screen for free in schools, a move Sir Keir welcomed as “an important initiative to encourage as many pupils as possible to watch the show”.

The programme has sparked a national conversation about the impact of social media and “manosphere” influencers.

Jack Thorne, who wrote the show with actor Stephen Graham, recently said the prime minister should “rather urgently” consider a smartphone ban in schools and a “digital age of consent”, similar to Australia, which has passed a law banning children under 16 from using social media.

Thorne and producer Jo Johnson gave their views to Sir Keir at Monday’s meeting, along with selected charities and young people. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy was also there.

The prime minister, who has a daughter aged 14 and a 16-year-old son, told them the show was “at times harrowing” but had “lit a touch paper” under the debate about the issues.

“To be honest, as a dad, I have not found it easy viewing,” he said.

“It instantly contacts with the fears and worries, not just of young people – because I was really struck by how riveted our children were to it – but also frankly the fears and worries of parents and adults across the country.”

But he told the attendees there was no single policy that could provide a simple solution.

“It is actually much bigger than that, almost a cultural issue,” he said.

He added that the show highlighted “the devastating effect of misogyny on our society”, plus “the dangers of online radicalisation and this sense of young people being on their own, very often in their bedroom or wherever, isolated with that online radicalisation”, and “the challenges our children, schools and families face every day”.

Speaking afterwards, Thorne said it was a “brilliant” meeting.

“The brilliant thing was that it wasn’t about us,” he said. “It was about facilitating conversations with charities and youth groups who really understand what’s going on, and I hope a solution can be found to this problem.”

The success of Adolescence has helped those charities and groups get “the opportunity to have conversations that they haven’t had before and that they should have had, and that might lead to a policy change and things being made better for our young people”, he added.

The government pointed to measures including the Online Safety Act, which says social media companies will have to protect children from harmful material including pornography, material promoting self-harm, bullying and content encouraging dangerous stunts.

Platforms will be expected to adopt “age assurance technologies” to prevent children from seeing harmful content.

The government is also updating its guidance on how schools should teach children about relationships, sex and health education (RSHE).

The Times recently reported that it would include “lessons to counter misogyny and the growing appeal of influencers such as Andrew Tate”, in the wake of the discussions about Adolescence.

Meanwhile, Netflix announced that the drama will be available to all UK secondary schools through the Into Film+ schools streaming service.

In a statement, Thorne said: “To have the opportunity to take this into schools is beyond our expectations. We hope it’ll lead to teachers talking to the students, but what we really hope is it’ll lead to students talking amongst themselves.”

For 22-year-old Harry Foster, being radicalised as a teenager was “very easy”.

“When you’re a child, it’s very easy when there’s a lack of any sort of direction or positive role models to get swept along with something,” he said.

He said extremist groups exploited his vulnerability with addiction issues as a teenager, manipulating him into sharing racist and misogynistic views.

“I thought I was finding some sense of belonging,” he told BBC Newsbeat. “What I was actually being given was a very harmful and very radical set of political views, which is almost like the trade-off for belonging to these people.”

He got help through The Warren youth group in Hull and now works with them to help other boys and young men in similar situations.

Harry welcomed Sir Keir’s plans to work with Netflix to show Adolescence in secondary schools, but said more work must be done.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a time where young people as a whole feel more disconnected from politicians,” he said.

“It’s one thing to make young men aware of the problems around these kind of ideologies, but it’s equally important we’re offering an alternative to young boys and men who are so desperately looking for something to identify with.

“I don’t think it’s as simple as showing a TV show. There needs to be a positive alternative for young people.”

An underwater camera set up 55 years ago to try and photograph the Loch Ness Monster has been found by accident by a robot submarine.

The ocean-going yellow sub – called Boaty McBoatyface – was being put through trials when its propeller snagged the mooring for the 1970s camera system.

It is believed it was lowered 180m (591ft) below the loch’s surface by the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau, a group set up in the 1960s to uncover the existence of Nessie in the waters.

No footage of Nessie has been found on the camera, but one of the submarine’s engineers was able to develop a few images of the loch’s murky waters.

Adrian Shine, of The Loch Ness Project – which has been researching the loch since the 1970s, helped to identify the camera.

He said it was likely to be one of six deployed. Three were lost during in the loch during a gale.

Mr Shine said: “It was an ingenious camera trap consisting of a clockwork Instamatic camera with an inbuilt flash cube, enabling four pictures to be taken when a bait line was taken.

“It is remarkable that the housing has kept the camera dry for the past 55 years, lying more than 130m (426ft) deep in Loch Ness.”

The UK’s National Oceanography Centre (NOC) has been carrying out trials of marine autonomous underwater vehicles for almost 10 years.

NOC’s Matt Kingsland said: “At 230m (754ft) deep, Loch Ness is an ideal location to testing our robotics, their sensors and systems, before they’re deployed in the deep ocean to help answer the big questions we have.

“While this wasn’t a find we expected to make, but we’re happy that this piece of Nessie hunting history can be shared and perhaps at least the mystery of who left it in the loch can be solved.”

The film, camera and its housing have been handed to The Loch Ness Centre, in Drumnadrochit, near to where it was found.