Steve Bannon is determined to make a third Trump term happen, telling Bill Maher he believes the Constitution is “open for interpretation.”
“President Trump is going to run for a third term, and President Trump is going to be elected again on the afternoon of January 20th of 2029,“ the longtime Trump adviser and confidant said on Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday. “He’s going to be President of the United States.”
Bannon conceded that he, not Trump, proposed the idea of the president serving beyond two terms. But Trump has also floated the idea.
Trump, 78, told NBC last month he was “not joking” about the prospect of a third term, but he insisted it was “too early to even think about it.” The comments came after months of joking about another run in office as he cements his grip on the Republican Party.
An incredulous Maher read aloud the 22nd Amendment from a pocket copy of the Consititution, questioning how Bannon planned to get around that.
The 22nd Amendment prohibits a person from getting elected to more than two terms. “No person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice,” it reads.
“And yet you keep talking about Trump’s,” Maher said before handing his copy to Bannon. “Maybe you should have this.”
Bannon persisted, saying that Trump would win a third term and that he had a “team of people” working on circumventing the amendment.
“OK, but the thing I just read in there, it seemed like there was no wiggle room there, it seemed like it was just, you know, eight or ten words that said only two times,” Maher said, adding, “How can a team do something about that? I don’t care if the team is twelve trillion people, the words are still the words.”
Bannon claimed the various lawsuits against Trump and his administration over his constitutional authority supported his position, saying there were “120 lawsuits on what President Trump is doing for his Article II rights.”
“The interpretation of this,” Bannon said, holding up the copy of the Constitution, “is open for interpretation.”
“How could it be open—could I have it back?” Maher said. The two agreed to disagree on the subject.
Bannon has previously floated ways to allow Trump to remain in office, telling NewsNation last month he was “working on it.”
“I think we’ll have a couple of alternatives,” Bannon said. “Let’s say that. We’ll see, we’ll see, we’ll see what the definition of term limit is.”
Three days into Trump’s second term, Rep. Andy Ogles, a Republican from Tennesee, also proposed a bill to amend the Constitution to allow a president to serve up to three terms—unless they’ve already served two consecutive terms. Ogles said the amendment was necessary to “sustain the bold leadership our nation so desperately needs.”
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