President Donald Trump tried to project control as he fielded questions aboard Air Force One on Monday, brushing off one of the more creative theories about how he could extend his grip on power beyond two terms.
The exchange might have landed quietly — if not for one problem. Just days earlier, his former chief strategist Steve Bannon had already let slip a plan that sent the same speculation into overdrive.
Bannon, in an interview with The Economist, confidently declared Trump would “get a third term,” insisting there were “many different alternatives” to keep him in office. His words, now circulating widely online, only made Trump’s later dismissal sound like double talk.
When a reporter asked Trump about one scenario circulating online that he could run as vice president in 2028 and later assume the presidency again, Trump dismissed the idea.
“I’d be allowed to do that,” he replied confidently, “but I wouldn’t do that. I think it’s too cute. Yeah, I would rule that out because it’s too cute. I think the people wouldn’t like that … It’s not — it wouldn’t be right.”
Still, his words didn’t exactly calm the speculation. Asked moments later whether he was fully ruling out a third term, Trump answered, “Am I not ruling it out? I mean, you’ll have to tell me.”
Bannon, meanwhile, has been less subtle. In an interview with The Economist last week, he insisted Trump would “be president in ’28.”
When asked about the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which limits U.S. presidents to two terms in office, Bannon played coy, claiming, “There’s many different alternatives” to keep Trump in office, although he did not specify what he thinks they are.
“At the appropriate time, we’ll lay out what the plan is,” he said, adding, “But there’s a plan and President Trump will be the president in ‘28.”
That kind of rhetoric, coupled with Trump’s own refusal to draw clear lines, has alarmed critics who see a coordinated effort to test constitutional boundaries.
“C’mon @Bannon_WarRoom, the man can’t even finish a sentence. In 2028, Trump will either be in the ground or he’ll be in an assisted living, memory care facility wearing a dribble cup. You’re f-cking ridiculous,” this X user angrily responded.
And this ominous post from Orwell’s Ghost set up a grim strategy for Trump to maintain power, “This has been obvious for a long time. He doesn’t intend to leave. He’ll likely have an election, where he’s somehow on the ballot… If he wins, he wins… If he loses, he still ‘wins.’ Worst case, if he’s somehow blocked from running again, he’ll declare an ongoing ‘emergency’ and postpone elections indefinitely. People need to wake up.”
Another X user repeated the plan Trump dismissed: Vance will run with Trumpty as his VP. If he wins, then Vance resigns….”
While Trump is seemingly concerned about the optics of his possible path to a third term, his contradictory verbiage makes it worse.
Just earlier this week in the Oval Office, Trump left many concerned when he once again revisited the 2020 elections with an ominous warning of never letting it happen again.
“We’re really, ah we’re really, I think it’s got to be, it’s got to be handled in a proper way. If it’s not handled in a proper way, but we don’t want it to happen again. We can never let what happened in the 2020 election happen again. We just can’t let that happen. And so the way we go, I know Kash [Patel] is working on it, everybody’s working on it, and certainly Tulsi [Gabbard] is working on it. We can’t let that happen again to our country,” he insisted.
The backlash again was swift.
“This is pure tyrant stunting. He’s weaponizing federal agencies and allies to keep a lie alive, undermining the very foundations of democracy. It’s not ‘election integrity’—it’s a full-on blueprint for power grabs, and anyone who goes along is complicit in eroding the rule of law. Total institutional sabotage,” X user Charles Perreira predicted.
Another said more bluntly, “Did this MF-er just admit he’s going to rig the election?”
Trump then doubled down on Truth Social this time calling out former President Barack Obama by his full name for racist emphasis. The post closed out with all caps.
“THE 2020 ELECTION WAS AN ILLEGAL SCAM/HOAX THAT THE PEOPLE OF OUR GREAT COUNTRY WILL NEVER FORGET!
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That startled viewers even more. Political commentor Aaron Parnas issued a stark warning repeating one of the growing theories of Trump’s plan, “I don’t think people realize that Donald Trump is setting the stage for a national emergency declaration to take over elections ahead of 2026.”
