On Sunday, podcast host Steve Bannon suggested that President-elect Donald Trump could enter the 2028 presidential race, prompting a wave of objections from legal critics who responded that the Constitution prohibits it.
Bannon, who served as a top adviser to Trump at the start of the president-elect’s first administration, floated the idea while giving a speech at the New York Young Republican Club’s annual gala.
“The viceroy Mike Davis tells me since it doesn’t actually say consecutive that, I don’t know, maybe we do it again in ’28? Are you guys down for that? Trump ’28?” Bannon asked to loud applause.
Davis, Article III Project founder and fervent Trump supporter, clarified in a statement online that Bannon was “obviously trolling” and added that “only Obama gets a third term, with his puppet Biden.”
The 22nd Amendment explicitly prohibits presidents from serving more than two terms. Josh Blackman, a constitutional law professor at South Texas College of Law, told the Washington Examiner there was no way around it.
“I don’t think there is a workaround,” Blackman said. “Each state election process would have to approve him. We already saw states trying to kick Trump off the ballot for insurrection. This would be a non-starter.”
Trump said on the View in April that he “wouldn’t be in favor” of attempting to repeal the 22nd Amendment, which was ratified in 1951. However, one month later, Trump observed that President Franklin D. Roosevelt served four terms.
“You know, FDR 16 years, almost 16 years, he was four terms,” Trump told the National Rifle Association. “I don’t know, are we going to be considered three-term? Or two-term?”
After Trump secured an election victory, he again entertained the idea of staying in office while speaking to House Republicans.
“I suspect I won’t be running again unless you do something,” Trump said, according to audio the Hill obtained. “Unless you say, ‘He’s so good, we have to just figure it out.’”
Following Bannon’s remarks, Anthony Michael Kreis, a constitutional law professor at Georgia State University, rejected the idea.
“Nobody can hold a third term as president in the united states,” Kreis wrote on X. “thank you for coming to my ted Talk.”
Similarly, legal commentator Mark Romano reacted by saying the 22nd Amendment “very clearly” prevented Trump from a third term, “consecutive or not.”
“In 2028, Trump will make Joe Biden look like the picture of youth and vitality,” Romano added.
