Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon is stirring conversation again — this time over the possibility of Donald Trump serving a third term in office.
In a candid interview with The Economist, Bannon declared, “He’s gonna get a third term, Trump ’28, Trump is gonna be president ’28 so people just ought to get accommodated with that.” When pressed by editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes about the 22nd Amendment, which limits presidents to two terms, Bannon said, “There’s many different alternatives. 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 helped architect Trump’s populist surge in 2016, framed the former president as a political force far from finished. “He had longer odds in ’16 and longer odds in ’24,” Bannon said, “than he does looking ahead at the 2028 election. The country needs him to be President of the United States. We have to finish what we started.”
He went further, calling Trump an “instrument of divine will” despite not being “churchy” or “particularly religious.” To Bannon, Trump’s endurance through years of political and legal battles is proof of something larger — a man uniquely chosen to restore order and accountability in a system long dominated by elites.
“We need him for at least one more term, and he’ll get that in ’28,” Bannon added.
That confidence mirrors Trump’s own tone. The president recently shared a video on Truth Social imagining him ruling “through 2032 — and forever.” And in a March interview with NBC News, Trump admitted that “a lot of people” wanted him to seek a third term. Though he said he was focused on his current one, he noted, “There are methods which you could do it.”
When NBC pressed him on those methods — including speculation that Vice President JD Vance could run and later hand over power — Trump replied, “That’s one, but there are others, too.” He declined to elaborate.
While critics scoff at the idea, even some constitutional scholars have admitted that the issue isn’t as airtight as many assume. Former Harvard professor Laurence Tribe wrote on X that “the 22d dsn’t bar serving a 3d term, only being elected 3 times,” suggesting potential legal gray areas that could be tested if Trump were to pursue an unconventional path back to office.
The mere discussion highlights a deeper reality: Trump’s influence continues to dominate American politics, reshaping debates on constitutional limits, executive power, and the will of the people. Love him or hate him, the former president remains the gravitational center of the Republican Party — and for millions of voters, the only one they trust to stand up to the establishment and finish what he started.
