On October 11, 2025, Steve Bannon, a longtime ally and strategist for President Donald Trump, reignited a political firestorm during an interview on NewsNation’s BATYA! by claiming that Trump’s team is preparing a slate of tactics to keep the former—and now current—president on the ballot in 2028. Bannon’s remarks, made just a year before the crucial 2026 midterm elections, have fueled speculation, constitutional debate, and partisan tension as the country faces the unprecedented prospect of a president seeking a third term.
Bannon’s statements were unequivocal. "I think that there are many different alternatives that, at the appropriate time, after the midterms, we will roll out," he told host Batya Ungar-Sargon. "I think there are many different alternatives to make sure that President Trump is on the ballot, and if he’s on the ballot, he’ll win." This wasn’t the first time Bannon floated such possibilities, but his timing and certainty struck a new chord in the national conversation.
Bannon’s confidence echoes Trump’s own public musings. Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has been selling “Trump 2028” hats and, in a March 2025 interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker, declared he was “not joking” about considering a third term. He claimed there were “methods” by which he could remain in the White House, though he declined to elaborate. Yet, in an August appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Trump appeared to hedge, saying he would “probably not” run again. The ambiguity has only added fuel to the speculation.
Behind these headline-grabbing remarks lies a formidable constitutional barrier: the Twenty-Second Amendment. Ratified in 1951, the amendment states in plain language, "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 President more than once." The intent was clear—no more than two terms for any one president, a direct response to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four-term tenure.
Nevertheless, some Republicans are openly discussing ways to circumvent or even repeal the amendment. Representative Randy Fine of Florida, for example, took to social media, writing, "The Nobel Peace Prize isn’t enough. If every living hostage is returned and lasting peace in the Middle East is secured, we should repeal the 22nd Amendment and thank the Lord for every day @realdonaldtrump can be our President. There will never be another one like him." Fine’s message reflects a growing movement within the party, exemplified by the so-called "Third Term Project," a Republican group that has rallied support for Representative Andy Ogles’ proposal to amend the Constitution and permit Trump to seek office again.
But the path to amending the Constitution is steep—some would say insurmountable in the current political climate. As Newsweek reported, any amendment would require a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate, plus the approval of three-quarters of state legislatures. James Sample, a constitutional law professor at Hofstra University, was blunt in his assessment: "The prohibition on third presidential terms, on the contrary, is clear and unequivocal. The first sentence of Section 1 of the 22nd Amendment is as straightforward as can be—no person shall be elected to the office of president more than twice. Donald Trump cannot be elected to a third term." Sample added that the odds of repealing the amendment in the current moment "are precisely zero. Congress is presently failing to generate the modest majorities required to end a government shutdown, much less achieving two-thirds supermajorities in both houses, and much, much less doing so to enable an extension of a historically unpopular and divisive presidency."
Other legal scholars share this skepticism. Rick Hasen, a professor of law at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Newsweek, "There is no way legally for Trump to serve a third term. If he is able to do so, it means that the Supreme Court has capitulated to an unconstitutional route for Trump. I don’t expect Trump to run in any case. The Constitution will not be amended in time for the 2028 elections to allow Trump to run for a third term." Hasen suggested that the talk of a third term might be more about political optics than legal reality: "I think this talk is meant to try to stop people from treating Trump as a lame duck president."
Bannon, for his part, insisted that any strategy to keep Trump on the ballot would have to be legal and broadly supported. "Well, yeah. I mean… it’s going to have to be legal right? I don’t think there’s any illegal means that you could actually do that the American people support. And this has to be supported by a broad spectrum of the American people," he said on NewsNation. Yet, he declined to provide specifics, saying only that those plans would be revealed "at the appropriate time" after the 2026 midterms.
Some of the more speculative ideas circulating among Trump’s supporters revolve around the wording of the Twenty-Second Amendment itself. According to James Sample, Bannon is likely referencing "far-fetched ideas aimed at circumventing the prohibition by emphasizing the prohibition’s use of the word ‘elected.’" One scenario floated by some theorists suggests that a running mate—such as Vice President JD Vance—could run on a "false-pretense ticket," only to step down and be replaced by Trump through the line of succession. Sample dismissed this as a nonstarter, saying, "Voters tolerate a multitude of lies from politicians generally, and Mr. Trump specifically, but the American people are too smart to fall for a sham campaign based entirely on such a ruse."
Meanwhile, the legal and political landscape is shifting in other ways. According to The New Republic, recent remarks from Supreme Court Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Clarence Thomas have left some observers uncertain about whether the Court would enforce the amendment’s clear prohibition. This uncertainty, coupled with Republican efforts to criminalize "No Kings" protests across the country, has only heightened the stakes of the debate.
As the nation looks ahead to the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential race, the question of Trump’s political future remains as contentious as ever. Any attempt to place him on the ballot for a third term would almost certainly trigger a wave of legal challenges and a constitutional crisis of historic proportions. For now, the talk of a Trump 2028 campaign remains just that—talk. But in an era where political norms are routinely tested, few are willing to rule out anything entirely.
With the quiet part now spoken aloud, the country faces a moment of reckoning over the meaning and limits of its own Constitution—and the lengths to which political actors will go to test them.