The Third Term Joke That Isn’t a Joke: Steve Bannon Says the Quiet Part Out Loud

When a Joke Stops Being Funny

When someone tells you the same thing for seven years, at some point you have to decide: are they joking, or are you?

Last week, Steve Bannon sat down with The Economist and dropped what should’ve been a career-ending quote in a sane world:

“He’s gonna get a third term. Trump is gonna be president in ‘28, and people just ought to get accommodated with that.”

No wink. No grin. No “just kidding.”
Pressed on that pesky 22nd Amendment, Bannon smirked:

“There’s many different alternatives. At the appropriate time, we’ll lay out what the plan is.”

“Plan.” Not fantasy. Not fan fiction. Plan.

The Joke We Keep Telling Ourselves

Trump himself said it: “I’d love to do it.”
And instantly, America’s collective nervous system goes into self-soothing mode:
He’s trolling.
He’s joking.
He can’t do that.
The Constitution would stop him.
The courts would stop him.

Because believing him... actually believing him... would mean having to do something about it.
And most people would rather believe in fairy tales than fascism.

History’s Favorite Lie: “He Doesn’t Mean It”

Adolf Hitler didn’t hide what he wanted, he published it. People read Mein Kampf and said, “He’s exaggerating.”
Putin said in 2005 that the fall of the Soviet Union was the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the century. People called it nostalgia.
Then came Crimea. Then Ukraine.

The pattern isn’t that tyrants lie. The pattern is that citizens refuse to believe them until it’s too late.

The Founders Saw This Movie Already

In 1787, the Founding Fathers debated how long a president should serve. Some wanted lifetime terms, Hamilton literally suggested “during good behavior,” aka forever.
Madison called it an elective monarchy.
Edmund Randolph called it the foetus of monarchy, because even back then, the patriots knew how monarchy starts: one man convinced he alone can save the nation.

They compromised on four years, no limits, because George Washington would set an example by walking away.
He did.
Every president followed his lead. Until FDR didn’t.

The 22nd Amendment Exists for a Reason

After twelve years of Roosevelt, Congress freaked out, not because FDR was evil, but because even good leaders can overstay their welcome.
So we got the 22nd Amendment:

“No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”

That’s it. No footnotes. No “unless it’s Trump.”
But rules only matter when people enforce them, and Bannon’s smirk suggests they’re already gaming out who won’t.

The Crown, Not the Plan

Trump has been telegraphing this for years:

• 2018: Praises Xi Jinping for ending term limits — “Maybe we’ll give that a shot someday.”
• 2023: Floats “methods” to bypass the 22nd Amendment.
• 2024: Campaign sells Trump 2028 merch.
• 2025: Bannon says there’s a plan.

This isn’t improvisation. It’s normalization.
Because once you’ve trained the public to laugh at authoritarianism, you’ve done half the dictator’s work.

The Machinery of Forever

Trump’s “Schedule F” would let him purge federal employees and replace them with loyalists. State legislatures are rewriting election laws to control certification.
Courts are stacked with Trump judges. The Supreme Court has already gifted presidents near-total immunity.
Would they “entertain” a creative reading of the 22nd Amendment? You bet your burnt Constitution they would.

The third term isn’t the plan. It’s the prize.
The plan is dismantling the checks that would stop it.

The Sound of Shrugging

The responses always sound the same:
“The courts will stop him.”
“Congress will impeach him.”
“The military won’t go along.”

Except they didn’t. Twice.
And authoritarianism doesn’t begin with a coup! It begins with a shrug.

Picture 2028

A county election board. Five members: three Republicans, two Democrats. Trump’s name appears on the ballot for a third time.
Democrats move to strike it.
Vote: 3–2.
Name stays.
Repeat that scene across fifty counties. Enough counties. Enough lawyers. Enough judges.
Boom. Precedent.

The Founders Warned You

Hamilton dreamed of a president for life.
Randolph warned it was the embryo of monarchy.
In 1951, we wrote the 22nd Amendment because even good leaders proved too human for unlimited power.

And now, Steve Bannon tells The Economist, “There’s a plan.”
Not in a basement, not on a podcast, but in Washington, D.C. with the cameras rolling and the Founders rolling in their graves.

The only question left is:
How much longer does it need to be a joke?