Bannon: 'There's a Plan' for Trump's 3rd Term in 2028

Steve Bannon says there's a plan already in motion to return President Donald Trump to the White House for a third term, insisting, "We need him for at least one more term." 

"At the appropriate time we'll lay out what the plan is," Bannon, who served as Trump's chief strategist during the first seven months of his first term, told The Economist. 

"But there's a plan. We had longer odds in '16 and longer odds in '24 than we've got in '28."

Pressed on whether Trump will run again, Bannon didn't hesitate. 

"He's going to get a third term," he said. 

"Trump is going to be president in 2028. And people just ought to get accommodated with that."

Bannon said Trump must serve beyond his current second term to complete the mission that began in 2016.

"The country needs him to be president," he said. "We have to finish what we started. We need him for at least one more term."

He described Trump as "a vehicle of divine providence, an instrument," and rejected the idea that another term would defy the Constitution.

When asked about the 22nd Amendment, which limits presidents to two elected terms, Bannon pushed back.

"If the American people, with the mechanisms we have, put Trump back in office, are the American people tearing up the Constitution?" he asked.

He dismissed talk that labeling a third term would be akin to a dictatorship.

"It's not true at all," Bannon said. "The only way President Trump wins in 2028 and continues to stay in office is by the will of the American people."

Bannon's remarks come as some Trump allies push to repeal the 22nd Amendment. 

Florida Republican Rep. Randy Fine has urged Congress to act, while a group called Third Term Project is backing Rep. Andy Ogles' amendment proposal.

Trump has flirted with the idea himself. 

In March, he told NBC News he was "not joking" about a third run, suggesting there were "methods" to make it possible. By August, he appeared to temper expectations, saying he would "probably not" run again.

Amending the Constitution would require approval from two-thirds of Congress and three-fourths of state legislatures.

But Bannon was defiant. "The movement is bigger than the system," he said. "Trump's not done — and neither are we."