As he faces an onslaught of investigations, including various probes that stem from the findings of special counsel Robert Mueller, Donald Trump may have developed a novel strategy for minimizing his potential legal vulnerability: stay president for as long as possible. “Some people close to Mr. Trump have privately predicted that he will ultimately choose to seek a second term in part because of his legal exposure if he is not president,” The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

Trump’s reported preoccupation with executive privilege underscores the legitimate legal peril he could face when he leaves office, be it in two years’ time, or six, or somewhere in between. He’s currently staring down probes into his ties to Russia, his potential involvement in campaign-finance violations, and his shady business empire, along with the possibility that he has sought to obstruct investigators. On Tuesday, for instance, New York State regulators issued a sweeping subpoena to the Trump Organization’s insurance broker, following testimony from Michael Cohen that the president has inflated and deflated his assets in reports to insurance companies. And prosecutors for the Southern District of New York are reportedly digging in that direction, too.

Then, of course, there’s the matter of the checks Trump allegedly cut to Cohen while he was in office, to reimburse his former fixer for hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels. “The $35,000 is an indication of the quality of that evidence, and it both shows the extent of Trump’s leading role and now leaves little doubt that he faces criminal prosecution after he leaves office for the same offenses for which Cohen will serve time,” Robert Bauer, a law professor at New York University and former White House counsel for Barack Obama, told the Times.

In theory, Trump is safe as long as he holds office—long-standing Department of Justice policy holds that indicting a president in office “would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions.” As such, Trump may be able to insulate himself from any charges that could arise from the probes—as long as he resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Staying above the law isn’t the sole reason for Trump to fight like hell in 2020; he loves holding rallies, has been the center of attention for the past two years, and appears to be using his office to enrich himself and his friends. But the fact that his office could protect him from potential legal jeopardy could give him even more incentive to run hard against whoever Democrats put up against him next year. Trump complains often about the investigations that have encircled his presidency since day one. But if he hates “presidential harassment,” he’ll really hate “harassment” as a private citizen.