The Third Term - Steve Bannon’s Dangerous Game with American Democracy

Steve Bannon has once again ignited a fire that was long considered extinguished. In an interview, he said with the composure of a man who loves chaos: “Trump is gonna get a third term. People ought to get accommodated with that.” For American democracy, this sentence is more than a provocation. It is a test balloon - calculated, ideological, strategic. Bannon, once the architect of the Trump movement, speaks of a “plan” that is supposed to bring Donald Trump back to the White House in 2028. This is not a mere fantasy but part of a narrative that has been circulating in Bannon’s networks for months: the myth of inevitability. Trump, so the narrative goes, stands above institutions, above the Constitution, above time. The idea of a third term is legally impossible - the 22nd Amendment explicitly prohibits a president from being elected more than twice - but for Bannon, that is just a “technical detail.” “There are many alternatives,” he said. “At the appropriate time, we’ll lay out what the plan is.”

It is the sound of disinformation disguised as rhetoric of destiny. That Trump himself has made similar suggestions - he spoke in the spring of “methods” and “constitutional flexibility” - amplifies the echo. The Washington Post reported at the time that advisers in the West Wing had tried to dissuade him from using such phrases. But the seed was sown: in Bannon’s circles, the notion of Trump’s return after 2028 has long been seen as a possible scenario, even if it would have nothing to do with the rule of law anymore.

Legally, the matter is clear. The U.S. Constitution leaves no room for interpretation here. A circumvention would only be conceivable through a constitutional amendment - or through a construct that pushes the limits of legality: for example, if an ally formally becomes president and Trump “governs” as an “advisor” or “co-president.” Scenarios quietly floated in Bannon’s environment but publicly dismissed as hypothetical thought experiments. Meanwhile, the political context is explosive. Just last week, according to several sources familiar with the matter, Bannon is said to have received a “dressing down” in the Oval Office. Trump was annoyed - not about the statement on the third term but about Bannon’s growing closeness to Laura Loomer, an ultra-right activist who recently openly criticized parts of the Trump agenda. Loomer, who describes herself as a “loyal opposition,” symbolizes the new right that venerates Trump but despises his compromises. That Bannon publicly courted her was seen in the West Wing as a transgression.

“Trump will get a third term, and people should just get used to it. At the right time, we’ll explain what the plan is, but there is a plan - and President Trump will be president in 2028.”

t even this storm seems to have calmed down at the grassroots level for now. In the background, however, the turmoil continues. After internal discussions, it is said that “calm has returned.” Breitbart, Bannon’s old power base, has visibly increased its presence in public. The network is once again highly active - in Bannon’s own show “War Room,” in the comment sections of online magazines, in the strategic messages being multiplied on social media. The goal remains to anchor Trump’s political line as a lasting movement beyond his presidency - a “MAGA without an expiration date.” The rhetoric of continuity replaces the open code: it is meant to nurture the feeling that Trump is more than a president - an era that does not end but continues to write itself. See also our article “When the Believers Fall - Laura Loomer’s Rage and the Collapse of the Trump Camp” at the link: https://kaizen-blog.org/en/wenn-die-glaeubigen-fallen-laura-loomers-wut-und-der-zerfall-des-trump-lagers/

In Bannon’s world, power does not end with the oath of office. It circulates, reshapes itself. And while he casually speaks of “alternatives” in interviews, the parallel structures of the Trump movement are already running the next campaigns: legal skirmishes against election authorities, new PACs, targeted media narratives. What is emerging here is not a political program but a narrative of untouchability. The third term is - for now - a rhetorical weapon, a message to the base: the man they consider infallible remains eternal. The institutions meant to limit him are mere stage sets.

It is the old Bannon principle - “flood the zone with shit” - this time applied to the very idea of the Constitution. By voicing the unthinkable, he shifts the discourse. And while the political elite in Washington is still wondering whether to ignore or take him seriously, perception at the base is already shifting another millimeter toward the authoritarian normal. Democracy rarely dies overnight. It dies when investigations stop, when society bends, and when disinformation becomes the new truth. Our investigations are ongoing, and further findings will follow.

To be continued .....