Former Trump advisor says there are ‘plans’ for him to run for third term in 2028, despite law forbidding it

“Trump is going to be president in 2028. And people just ought to get accommodated with that,” said former Trump White House aid Steve Bannon.

Donald Trump and many of his MAGA allies have repeatedly floated the unconstitutional idea that the 45th and 47th president of the United States will serve a third term in office.

Steve Bannon, a former White House advisor to Trump during his first term, says there are “plans” mapped out to ensure Trump can run for another term in 2028.

“He’s going to get a third term … so Trump is going to be president in 2028. And people just ought to get accommodated with that,” Bannon told The Economist.

“At the appropriate time, we’ll lay out what the plan is. But there’s a plan. We had longer odds in ’16 and longer odds in ’24 than we’ve got in ’28,” he added.

Bannon’s assertions about Trump serving a third term fly in the face of the Constitution. Under the 22nd amendment, a president is limited to two elected terms.

Trump, who was elected president in 2016 and 2024, is not eligible for a third term. Despite that fact, Trump has for years joked about remaining president beyond the constitutional limit. Earlier this year, the Trump organization began selling “Trump 2028” hats, which have been on display in the White House.

Earlier this month, White House aids trolled Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer by presenting Trump 2028 hats on the Oval Office desk during a meeting on the government shutdown.

“The country needs him to be president of the United States. We have to finish what we started. We need him for at least one more term,” Bannon said of his conspiracy theory to keep Trump in the White House. He described Trump as a “vehicle of divine providence” and an “instrument.”

He added, “The only way President Trump wins in 2028, and continues to stay in office, is by the will of the American people, and the will of the American people is what the Constitution embodies.”

In 2020, after Trump lost the presidential election to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, Bannon reportedly advised Trump on how he could overturn the election’s result. A “Stop the Steal” rally led by Trump and his MAGA allies resulted in thousands of Trump supporters storming the U.S. Capitol building in a violent and deadly attack.

Bannon served four months in prison for contempt of Congress after he refused to appear for a subpoenaed deposition before a special committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot. The committee also sought to receive documents from Bannon about his involvement in Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Based on U.S. law, the only way for Trump to be able to serve beyond his second term is for the Constitution to be amended, either by a vote in the affirmative by two-thirds of Congress or by ratifying the Constitution through a special meeting known as a convention, where three-fourths of all 50 U.S. states must agree to it. Neither outcome is likely given political divisions between the Democratic and Republican parties and the voting electorate.

“I think any discussion of it really only serves to further his interest in a variety of ways,” Democratic strategist Joel Payne previously told theGrio. “Trump is a lame duck. He knows he’s a lame duck, and the only way that he can prevent folks from treating him like a traditional lame duck is by keeping this notion alive that somehow the rules of the Constitution don’t apply to him.”