Former White House advisor Steve Bannon has said Donald Trump will be elected for a third term in 2029 and they are working on “5 or 6 different ways to make it happen.”
“I haven’t said we’re going to amend the Constitution,” he said Monday.
“We’re working on five or six different alternatives that President Trump could run again and be president. Quite frankly, I think four or five of them are going to work.
Steve Bannon said there are several people working on securing Trump a third term, despite the U.S. Constitution preventing it
Image credits: Curtis Means-Pool/Getty Images
“As I told Bill Maher, on the afternoon of January 20th of 2029, Donald Trump is going to be president for his third term.”
Last week on Real Time with Bill Maher, Bannon, released from prison in late October, said Trump had not mentioned a third term, but he and others had.
He repeated his claim that Trump will be elected for a third term, despite Maher reading him the 22nd Amendment.
The 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.”
Image credits: Real Time with Bill Maher
Bannon—who was chief White House strategist in 2016 and 2017—said the Constitution is “open for interpretation” and they had a team of people working on it.
It’s not the first time suggestions of Trump running for a third term have been floated.
The president himself suggested he wanted to run again in 2029.
Last month, Trump told NBC News he was “not joking” about the possibility of seeking a third term. “There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said.
In January, Trump also joked about serving for more than two terms.
“It will be the greatest honor of my life to serve not once, but twice—or three times or four times,” he told his supporters, but then said this was a joke to create headlines for “fake news media.”
He even made headlines back in 2019 when he was filmed at a private meeting saying: “We’re looking good for another four years, and then if we want to, another four.”
Trump previously hinted that he wants to serve a third term as president, but it is unclear how he would achieve this
If Trump did manage to seek reelection and was successful, he would be 83 during his first year. By the end of a third term, Trump would be about to turn 87.
It is unclear what solutions Bannon is referring to that could challenge the 22nd Amendment.
One idea that has been circulated suggests a ‘succession’ loophole.
This would entail Trump running alongside someone as the vice-presidential candidate, potentially alongside the current VP, JD Vance.
If successful, the newly elected president would resign, paving the way for Trump to assume office through succession.
Image credits: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post
However, the last sentence of the 12th Amendment states: “No person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.”
Legal experts have raised concerns about talks of a third term.
“It would be completely unprecedented for a president to openly defy the dictates of the 22nd Amendment and, even more so, to attempt to run or serve again as president,” Michael Gerhardt, a constitutional expert at the University of North Carolina, told ABC News.
“The threats and insinuations no doubt thrill his base, but there is no constitutional basis for the current president to try to serve as president after two elected terms.”
Image credits: Real Time with Bill Maher
If Trump wants to run for a third term, it seems likely that the only legal way to do this would be to change the Constitution.
This would require two-thirds approval from both the Senate and House of Representatives, as well as approval from three-quarters of the country’s state-level governments.
The Democratic Party controls 18 of the 50 state legislatures, and while the Republican Party controls the House and Senate, they do not have the majorities needed.
Bannon has repeatedly claimed the 2020 election was “rigged” and “stolen” by the Democrats.
He was sentenced to four months in jail last year for defying a subpoena from a congressional committee that was investigating the January 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol.
Bannon immediately went back to his activism after he was released from prison for defying a subpoena
Image credits: Real Time with Bill Maher
In July 2022, he was convicted on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress by a federal jury for refusing to testify and provide documents.
He tried to appeal the conviction, delaying his sentence, but he was unsuccessful and had to report to prison on July 1, 2024. He was released early in October 2024.
Bannon is also a vocal supporter of Project 2025, which was created by right-wing think tank the Heritage Foundation.
The 900-page document outlines policies to dismantle the federal government, reshape it in favor of right-wing policies, and centralize executive power.
Trump distanced himself from Project 2025 during his election campaign, but has since nominated several of its authors to fill key government positions, the BBC reports.