Steve Bannon sparked fresh concerns about President Donald Trump remaining in office past the end of his second term.
The right-wing podcaster and former White House strategist spoke to MS NOW from an event in Greenville, South Carolina, where he claimed that Trump allies were exploring various avenues where the 79-year-old president could serve a third term despite a constitutional limit of two.
"I haven't said we're going to amend the Constitution," Bannon said. "We're working on 5 or 6 different alternatives that President Trump could run again and be president, and quite frankly, I think four or five of them are going to work."
"I continue to say, as I told Bill Maher, that on the afternoon of Jan. 20 of 2029, Donald Trump is going to be president for his third term," Bannon added.
Trump, who would be 82 years old in that scenario, has also floated the possibility of serving an unconstitutional third term and tried to remain in office past the end of his first term after losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden, and observers warned they seemed serious about refusing to give up power.
"I take him literally and seriously," warned Zeteo's Mehdi Hasan.
"Christian nationalist extremists are hijacking America," seethed journalist Nancy Levine Stearns.
"And all I will continue to say is…imagine the worst, and be ready to defeat it," cautioned former GOP congressman Joe Walsh. "Is Trump gonna f--- with/try to cancel the midterms? Believe it, defeat it. Will Trump try to run for a 3rd term? Believe it, defeat it. We didn’t imagine the worst after the 2020 election, and Jan 6 happened. Not again."
"He's already our oldest president," opined X user Faith Hope and Love Eternal. "He would be 86 at the end of that term. I don't even want him in his current term. No, thank you."