Far-right commentator and former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon says the president will serve a third term despite being barred by the Constitution. 

In a video interview with The Economist published Thursday, Bannon said, “Well, he’s gonna get a third term.” 

“Trump is gonna be president in ’28, and people ought to just get accommodated with that,” Bannon said, brushing off concerns about the Twenty-Eigth Amendment. 

“There’s many different alternatives. At the appropriate time, we’ll lay out what the plan is, but there’s a plan and President Trump will be the president in ’28,” Bannon added. 

Bannon’s odious remarks echo several threats and “jokes” made by Trump associates and administration officials, as well as the president himself. It’s not even the first time Bannon has mentioned plans to keep Trump in office longer—he mentioned “many different alternatives” for Trump’s presidency to continue in a NewsNation interview earlier this month. 

One of Trump’s lawyers was also exploring the possibility of Trump violating the Constitution’s term limits back in 2023, and Trump encouraged calls for a third term at a Michigan rally in April. The response from other conservatives, such as Senator Lindsey Graham and even Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, has not been reassuring.  

While Trump has claimed to be “joking,” he still is selling “Trump 2028” merchandise, and should be taken seriously. The question is whether Democrats have a plan to stop him by the time the presidential elections roll around in three years. Judging by their efforts against the president’s agenda this year, work needs to begin immediately.  

Watch the full interview with Bannon on YouTube (third-term chatter begins at 6:15). 

The White House has terminated all trade negotiations with Canada after Donald Trump claimed an advert misrepresented former President Ronald Reagan’s thoughts on tariffs. But that’s not quite true.

Last week, Ontario’s provisional government issued an ad featuring a clip of Reagan from a 1987 radio address in which the conservative icon argued that tariffs undermine economic prosperity, and that they only serve to “hurt every American.”

Late Thursday, Trump nixed trade talks with Canada, declaring the clip was a “fake.” The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation also claimed that the footage of the fortieth president was selectively edited and is reportedly seeking legal options.

The axed negotiations leave in place a 35 percent tariff on Canadian goods, as well as additional tariffs on Canada’s car and steel products, two fines that have particularly devastated Ontario.

The one-minute advertisement uses portions of Reagan’s five-minute speech, creating the impression that Reagan is saying several sentences in succession that were actually separate during the original address. As edited, Reagan appears to say this during Ontario’s ad:

When someone says, “Let’s impose tariffs on foreign imports,” it looks like they’re doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs. And sometimes, for a short while, it works—but only for a short time.

But over the long run such trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer. High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars. Then the worst happens: Markets shrink and collapse, businesses and industry shut down, and millions of people lose their jobs. Throughout the world, there’s a growing realization that the way to prosperity for all nations is rejecting protectionist legislation and promoting fair and free competition. America’s jobs and growth are at stake.

In reality … Reagan was still very critical of tariffs during the brief speech, perhaps even more so than depicted by the ad’s brevity. Not all of the sentences used in the advert, however, are in the exact order they appear in the complete speech. Here’s what Reagan actually said in his full address at Camp David on April 25, 1987, as released by the Reagan Foundation:

My fellow Americans, Prime Minister Nakasone of Japan will be visiting me here at the White House next week.

It’s an important visit because while I expect to take up our relations with our good friend Japan, which overall remain excellent, recent disagreements between our two countries on the issue of trade will also be high on our agenda. As perhaps you’ve heard, last week I placed new duties on some Japanese products in response to Japan’s inability to enforce their trade agreement with us on electronic devices called semiconductors.

Now, imposing such tariffs or trade barriers and restrictions of any kind are steps that I am loath to take, and in a moment I’ll mention the sound economic reasons for this, that over the long run such trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer. But the Japanese semiconductors were a special case. We had clear evidence that Japanese companies were engaging in unfair trade practices that violated an agreement between Japan and the United States. We expect our trading partners to live up to their agreements. As I’ve often said, our commitment to free trade is also a commitment to fair trade.

But you know, in imposing these tariffs, we were just trying to deal with a particular problem, not begin a trade war. So next week, I’ll be giving Prime Minister Nakasone this same message: We want to continue to work cooperatively on our trade problems and want very much to lift these trade restrictions as soon as evidence permits. We want to do this because we feel both Japan and the United States have an obligation to promote the prosperity and economic development that only free trade can bring.

Now, that message of free trade is one I conveyed to Canada’s leaders a few weeks ago, and it was warmly received there. Indeed, throughout the world, there’s a growing realization that the way to prosperity for all nations is rejecting protectionist legislation and promoting fair and free competition. Now, there are sound historical reasons for this. For those of us who lived through the Great Depression, the memory of the suffering it caused is deep and searing, and today, many economic analysts and historians argue that high tariff legislation passed back in that period called the Smoot-Hawley Tariff greatly deepened the Depression and prevented economic recovery.

You see, at first when someone says, “Let’s impose tariffs on foreign imports,” it looks like they’re doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs. And sometimes, for a short while, it works—but only for a short time. What eventually occurs is, first homegrown industries start........

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