Bannon: There's a Plan for Trump to Get 3rd Term

Steve Bannon has a bold prediction: President Trump will run again in 2028—and win a third term. In a video interview with the Economist, Trump's former White House chief strategist declared, "Trump is gonna be president in 28, and people just ought to get accommodated with that." Bannon has repeatedly said there are ways around the 22nd Amendment, which limits presidents to two terms. "There's many different alternatives," he told Economist editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes. "At the appropriate time, we'll lay out what the plan is. But there's a plan, and President Trump will be the president in '28."

Bannon, who hosts the War Room podcast, called Trump a "vehicle of divine providence," per NJ.com. "He's very imperfect. He's not churchy, not particularly religious," Bannon said. "But he's an instrument of divine will." Bannon pushed back when Beddoes said finding a way around the 22nd Amendment would be undermining it, Mediaite reports. "If the American people, with the mechanisms we have, put Trump back in office, are the American people tearing up the Constitution?" he asked Beddoes." Would the American People be going against the spirit of the Constitution, ma'am?" She replied, "I think yes, actually, because I think what you will end up with is a populist justification for a quasi-dictator."

• "We had longer odds in '16 and longer odds in '24 than we've got in '28," said Bannon, who was released from prison just before last year's election. In March, he told NewsNation that the plan for a third term would be make public in a few months. Earlier this month, he told the outlet that the "many different alternatives" for bypassing the 22nd Amendment would be rolled out after next year's midterms, per Newsweek.
• Trump himself has repeatedly raised the possibility of a third term. A Data for Progress poll from August shows that half of Americans—including 59% of Democrats, 50% of independents, and 42% of Republicans—think Trump will try for another run. However, 69% of voters say he shouldn't. The Republican base is split: 53% support another Trump run, but 52% say presidents should be limited to two terms.
• The Economist said it interviewed Bannon because "we believe it is important to engage seriously with people whose ideas challenge our own." In a post on X, Beddoes said she found the conversation "fascinating and alarming in almost equal measure," adding: "I hardly need to say that our world views are different."