Trump is back announcing a 2028 presidential bid. It’s dangerous to assume he’s joking

July 26, 2026 — 4:42pm

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Six years into his presidency, Donald Trump has ended his boycott of the annual White House Correspondents’ Association’s dinner. In a speech that included numerous attacks on his political enemies, Trump started and ended by joking about his plans to run again for president. He pulled out a “Trump 2028” hat with the tagline “rewrite the rules”, which is now for sale on his website for $US55 ($79).

Presidents are expected to make jokes at this dinner, as Trump did on Friday night. But Trump has spent most of his second term making sure that no one can be certain if he really is joking about running for a third term, despite the explicit ban in the US Constitution. Trump’s will-he-won’t-he drama has instead frozen Republican efforts for succession planning. In 2016, when Barack Obama was term-limited, both parties had already begun their unofficial primaries by this point and we know from Joe Biden’s late withdrawal in 2024 just how damaging it can be when a figurehead of the party won’t let go.

Trump started playing this game in March 2025, weeks after being sworn in for a second time, when he told NBC News that he was serious about a third term and spoke about the ways it could be possible. He has mentioned running again at least 18 times, moving between jokes and serious escalations, before conceding at the end of 2025 that the Constitution prohibited him from running again.

Because he keeps opening and closing the door,........

© Brisbane Times