After Donald Trump‘s former advisor Steve Bannon insisted he will remain in power past his second term because his team has a plan, and Trump said on Air Force One that he would “love to do it” in response to a question about whether he’ll try to run for a third term, the cohosts of The View issued a grim reaction during Monday’s (October 27) first “Hot Topic” discussion.
“You Know Who told us he was going to be a dictator on day one, and damn if he isn’t a dictator,” Whoopi Goldberg said to introduce the segment, referring to comments the then-candidate made in 2023. “He got back into office, and his former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, just added more fuel to the fire.”
The cohosts then reviewed footage of Bannon saying, “Well, he’s going to get a third term. So Trump ’28. Trump is going to be president in ’28, and people just ought to get accommodated with that… There’s a plan, and President Trump will be the president in ’28.” They then reviewed a clip of Trump’s comment as well, and then Goldberg turned to the audience to say, “So, just so we’re clear, you have nothing to say about any of this? … Republicans have pretty much given him free rein up till now. Are they going to let this happen? Are y’all gonna let it happen?” She was met with a chorus of “No” from the live audience.
Alyssa Farah Griffin then spoke to the matter and explained why she takes this seriously. “There’s certain people in Trump’s orbit who, when they tell you what they’re going to do, I really listen. And I would put Steve Bannon at the top of this list. He’s somebody who has been one of the senior-most advisors to Trump since the first time that he ran. He predicted the events around January 6, the efforts to overturn the election. And I feel crazy, because I feel like a conspiracy theorist talking about this.” She then noted that the Constitutional methods to achieve a third term would be an amendment or two-thirds of the states calling for a Constitutional convention, but she predicted that Trump would take a different route. “I think that he’s going to try to challenge it through the courts on the grounds that it wouldn’t be consecutive terms, and so to kind of parse the language within the Constitution to say that he actually could do this. And with the makeup of the courts, where a lot of judges are in power because Trump put them there, it’s possible that they perhaps could rule in his favor.”
Sunny Hostin, who was a lawyer before becoming a TV cohost on the show, said she thought the 22nd Amendment was clear on the matter but was concerned after Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was a guest on the show and said of the possibility, “Well, it hasn’t been tested.” Said Hostin, “That told me everything that I needed to know, because I think that she is a very faithful constitutionalist, but she also understands that the Constitution can be interpreted as a living and breathing thing, as opposed to just sort of this thing that was written eons ago.” She went on to say that, even though many people think “there’s no way he would do it,” that was also said about things like overturning Roe V. Wade or demolishing the East Wing of the White House. “He’s done everything that people thought that he would never do,” Hostin continued. “I actually have come to the conclusion that he is most definitely going to try to remain in power. Because remember that East Wing [will] take a long time to build that. He is hooking up the White House because he doesn’t plan on leaving it.”
Goldberg then jumped back in to say, “Well, I told y’all that years ago. He said it. He said, ‘I want to be president for life.’ I heard him saying it. I watched his lips move, and I thought, ‘He means this.’” She was likely referring to Trump’s comments in 2018 that he wanted to “try” the “president for life” example set by China’s Xi Jinping.
For Ana Navarro, the concept of Trump running again was “ironic” because, “There were a lot of people who thought Joe Biden was told to run. Donald Trump is already the oldest president ever elected. If he ran, he would be 82 in 2028.” She then pointed to publicized health concerns stemming from Trump’s recent appearances with swollen ankles and bruised hands. She also considered the idea that this is just an effort by Trump to “troll us… trigger us,” but added, “That doesn’t mean we don’t take them seriously. Part of the reason he’s done crazy abuses of power is because he can, because he’s getting away with it without any pushback or oversight from Republicans.”
Navarro also combatted the notion that the 22nd Amendment doesn’t forbid non-consecutive third terms and added, “This is a guy who’s got authoritarian envy. He goes around to these countries… He wants the parades, he wants the arches, he wants the ballrooms. He wants to be an emperor. He wants to be an authoritarian, paying no attention to Constitution. That’s the way Ortega does it, that’s the way Chavez did it, that’s the way Maduro does it, that’s the way Putin does it. So I would say, do not fall asleep on this…. Every single Republican elected Republican should be getting asked right now, ‘Would you be in favor or against Donald Trump running for a third term?’ And they don’t say anything, if they don’t answer, vote them out.”
Sara Haines had the rosiest view of the panel, saying, “I tend to believe that this would be stopped even in the courts, because the spirit of it was that someone doesn’t have that kind of power, whether consecutive or not. So I would hope that if it goes to the highest court, it would hold, but 80% of Americans oppose this…. Only 18% support it, which it’s not a popular move.” She also offered a theory as to why this is being discussed at the moment. “It’s coming up right now to look away from what’s very not popular for him right now, which is the shutdown.”
The View, weekdays, 11 a.m. ET, ABC