The 22nd Amendment of the United States Constitution 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."
This gives an eight-year maximum on the time any one person can serve as President. The Constitution would need to be amended again to allow anyone to run for a third term as President.
But this fact didn't stop President Donald Trump's former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon from suggesting it.
On Sunday during a speech at the New York Young Republican Club’s Gala, Bannon claimed the 22nd Amendment wouldn’t apply to Trump because the President-elect’s terms are not consecutive.
Bannon also promoted Trump’s Big Lie about his 2020 loss to Democratic President Joe Biden.
He told the GOP gathering:
"Donald John Trump is going to raise his hand on the King James Bible and take the oath of office, his third victory and his second term."
"And 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‽‽ Come on, man!"
Ironically, the 22nd Amendment states no one shall be elected—not serve—more than twice.
If what Bannon claimed was true and Trump was elected in 2020, he'd be ineligible to become President again in January of 2025.
People were quick to respond to Bannon's suggestion.
@rpsagainsttrump/Bluesky
@rpsagainsttrump/Bluesky
@rpsagainsttrump/Bluesky
@thethholler/Threads
Trump himself floated the idea of a fourth run in 2028 while meeting with House Republicans.
Trump said:
"I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say, ‘He’s so good we’ve got to figure something else out'."
While Trump speaks often of violating the Constitution he'll soon swear—again—to uphold, changes require two-thirds majorities in both the House and Senate to propose an amendment or two-thirds of the states to demand a constitutional convention to request changes. And while that is a high bar for anything to pass these days, according to The New York Times, Democrats are starting to worry that Republicans just might call a Constitutional Convention to rework the document they claim to love.
