Steve Bannon explained how he thinks Trump will seize power again in 2028, and warned of violent consequences if that doesn’t happen. Also Kamala might be back.
Donald Trump has gone to Kuala Lumpur for a summit that could not have been more helpfully timed if he’d arranged it himself. Back home he’s facing a wave of revulsion from Americans following the surprise demolition of the East Wing of the White House to make way for his gaudy vanity ballroom, and a government shutdown that has no end in sight – and which the public blame Republicans for. So a nice few days away bragging about overseas investment, trying to avoid Mark Carney in the corridors of the ASEAN get-together is just what the President needs.
Meanwhile, in Trumpworld
- Kamala Harris fancies another go, maybe
- Bannon says Trump 2028 is happening and we should just get used to it
- And he warns there’ll be civil war unless MAGA can ‘seize’ the House in rigged elections
- Trump might use the extra cash from his ballroom fundraiser to build the Arc De Trump
- And he’s sending people to ‘monitor’ elections
- Stephen Miller threatened the Governor of Illinois with arrest
- Trump claims accurate Reagan video ‘must be AI’ because of his views on tariffs
It’s starting to fall apart. Here’s everything you need to know.
Dem fightback
1. Kamala fancies another go, maybe
Kamala Harris is considering running for President again, because she’s “not done.” The former Vice President, who lost the 2024 election to Donald Trump, told the BBC she would “possibly” be President one day – her strongest indication yet that she is plotting another bid for the White House.
She told Laura Kuenssberg she could “for sure” see a female president during the lifetime of her grandnieces. And asked if it would be her, she said: “possibly.”
“I am not done,” she said. “I have lived my entire career as a life of service and it’s in my bones.” While bookmakers have her as an outsider in the race to be the next Democratic Presidential candidate, polls put her out in front. A national polling average puts her 3.6 points ahead of the nearest rival, California Governor Gavin Newsom. Pete Buttigieg, who served as Biden’s Transport Secretary, is a distant third on just 9.6%.
King Trump
2. Trump 2028 is happening and people should just get used to it
Former Trump aide and whisperer Steve Bannon declared once again that the President will serve an illegal third term in office, and that’s just something people need to come to terms with.
He said in an interview: “Well, he’s gonna get a third term, so Trump ’28. Trump is gonna 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 2028.”
Asked about the 22nd Amendment, which restricts Presidents to serving two terms in office, Bannon said: “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 2028.”
He went on: “We had longer odds in 16 than longer odds in 24 than we have in 28. And President Trump will be the President of the United States, and the country needs him to be President of the United States. We need to finish what we started.”
He went on to argue Trump was literally sent by god, and is a “vehicle of divine providence…an instrument of divine will”.
Pressed for more detail on what the plan is, given Bannon’s support for the text of the Constitution, he indicated a loophole could be found in the wording of the Amendment: “We will define all those terms.”
He’s been saying this for a while, but he said it in particularly stark terms.
3. Bannon says there’ll be civil war unless MAGA can rig elections to hold the House ‘permanently’
Bannon went on to suggest the only way to avoid the country falling into “civil conflict” is to rig elections and have the MAGA movement permanently “seize” the House of Representatives.
I wish I was over interpreting, but here’s the text of what he said:
“I think that to avoid actual civil conflict, which I think you’re seeing right now, the harbinger of it, if you want to stop that you have to bind together tighter. We as a populist nationalist movement, the MAGA movement we need to do the redistricting fights, that’s why I was down in Texas. We need to get the House in a situation that is permanently defendable by the MAGA movement. So it’s a blocking mechanism. You move a maximalist strategy, with a sense of urgency, and you seize the institutions. And that’s what we’re doing right now.”
4. Trump sends ‘election monitors’ to California and New Jersey
Speaking of which…the Department of Justice is preparing to send federal election observers to keep tabs on next month’s elections in California and New Jersey.
Officials will watch polling operations at six counties in the two Democrat-run states – which are both holding off-year special elections in November.
Jersey is holding an election for Governor, while California is holding a special referendum vote on its plan to redraw election districts – fending off Trump’s boundary gerrymandering elsewhere in the country.
But serious people are branding the move intimidation, election interference and a “test run” for next year’s midterms.
California’s Democratic Party Chair, Rusty Hicks, called said: “Sadly, we’ve come to expect it from a so-called party operating as little more of Trump fan club – [especially] in trying to rig the game before it’s ever played.”
And New Jersey’s Attorney General, Matthew Platkin said: “Once again, we are prepared to ensure that all eligible New Jerseyans are able to cast their ballots without harassment, discrimination, or intimidation. Those seeking to disrupt the voting process will be held accountable.”
5. ‘Maybe we’ll just use it for the Arc De Trump’
Trump revealed yesterday that he’s already raised $350m from donors to put towards his $300m vanity ballroom. So if he’s raised more money than he needs to pay for the ballroom, where does that cash go?
Oh, maybe on the Nazi-style triumphal ‘Arc de Trump’ he has planned for Washington DC.
On the way to Malaysia, he told reporters: “You know we’re building the arc. Maybe we use it for the arc. We raised a lot of money for the ballroom, so maybe we’ll put – the arc is going to be incredible for Washington DC, so maybe we use it for the arc.”
6. Don jr’s drones
A company linked to Donald Trump Jr has been handed a Pentagon contract to manufacture 3,500 drone motors and other parts, the FT has revealed. Unusual Machines, in which Jr has owned a $4m stake, said the US Army had handed it a deal to make components for them next year. Jr was brought on as an advisor last November – and its share value almost tripled in price in the weeks before it was announced. It’s not been confirmed whether he still holds the 331,580 shares he disclosed he owned at the time – and which would now be worth $4m. The firm says he “did not advise or do anything else on this deal”. A spokesman added: “Don has never communicated with anyone in the administration on behalf of Unusual Machines or about the contract in question. His advisory role with them has nothing to do with interfacing with the government.”
The Surge
7. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker sets up ICE watchdog…
Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker yesterday announced the creation of an “accountability commission” that would create a public record of what he called Trump’s “military-style assault on Chicago and our suburbs.” The commission’s members would also record the effect of the federal immigration crackdown on families and recommend actions to “prevent further harm and pursue justice,” he said. “We hope to reveal to the public in Chicago, the state of Illinois, to people around the world the facts that are going on here,” Pritzker said. “We hope to create a detailed record of the truth.”
8. …so Stephen Miller threatens to have him arrested
In response, White House Deputy Prince of Darkness Stephen Miller went thermonuclear, accusing Pritzker of ‘seditious conspiracy’ and threatening him, or anyone else who stands in his way, with arrest.
Seditious Conspiracy is a civil war-era law, which makes it a crime for “two or more people to conspire to overthrow, put down, or destroy by force the U.S. government, or to use force to oppose its authority, prevent the execution of its laws, or seize U.S. property.”
It was most recently used against Oath Keepers and Proud Boys leaders over the January 6th attack on the Capitol, and carries a prison term of up to 20 years.
Asked what he’d charge Pritzker with on (where else) Fox News, Miller said: “The answer I’m about to give doesn’t only apply to Governor Pritzker, it applies to any state official, any local official, anybody who is acting in an official capacity who conspires or engages in activity that unlawfully impedes on federal law enforcement conducting their duties. So if you engage in a criminal conspiracy to obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws, or unlawfully order your own police officers or your own officials to try to interfere with ICE officers, or even to arrest ICE officers, you’re engaging in criminal activity.”
He went on: “Different crimes would apply. There’s obstruction of justice, there is harbouring illegal aliens, there’s impeding enforcement of our immigration laws, then as you get up the scale of behaviour you obviously get into seditious conspiracy charges depending on the conduct and many other offences.”
And he sent a message to ICE officers: “You have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties. Anybody who lays a hand on you or tries to stop you or tries to obstruct you is committing a felony.”
He added: “The Department of Justice has been clear that if officials cross that line, into obstruction, into criminal conspiracy against the United States or against ICE officers, they will face justice.”
When things fall apart, it’s going to happen very quickly.
President of Peace
9. Miller doesn’t rule out invading Venezuela
Asked outside the White House whether the administration would consider boots on the ground in Venezuela, Stephen Miller said: “I would refer to what Secretary Hegseth said yesterday in terms of how the Department of War is viewing the issues of the strategies that have been used to fight these terrorists in the Western Hemisphere. I’ll continue to reiterate that, I know you want more answers than I can provide.”
He added: “The are terrorists and they’re gonna be killed.”
Everything’s tariffic
10. Trump claims Reagan loved tariffs, and anyone who says otherwise is an AI fake
Trump remains in a war of increasingly unhinged words with Canada, after a Canadian state government used Republican Party darling Ronald Reagan’s own words in an attack ad opposing Trump’s tariffs, which is now airing in US states.
Last night, before heading to Malaysia, Trump straight up lied about Reagan’s legacy, and said the video of him saying Tariffs were bad must be “AI or something.”
“They cheated on a commercial,” he said. They absolutely did not. “Ronald Reagan loved tariffs and they said he didn’t.” He absolutely didn’t.
“And I guess it was AI or something,” he mused. It was not.
“They cheated badly. Canada got caught cheating on a commercial. Can you believe it?” No, Mr President, we can’t. Because none of it is true. Don’t believe us? Here’s the transcript of the speech from which the ad quoted.
Not a fan of reading? You can watch the whole thing below. It’s not AI.
11. Trump: “I’ll subsidise cattle farmers”
Trump is taking a lot of heat from the beef industry – a very powerful lobby in the United States – after he floated the idea of bringing down grocery prices by importing more beef from Argentina.
(This would have the added benefit of helping his buddy, Argentinian President Javier Milei, out of the financial hole his Trump-adjacent government has landed his country in).
American ranchers, who are actually making money for the first time in ages, are understandably furious. So Trump has come up with a wizard wheeze. Government subsidies.
That’s right, the leader of the Republican Party is talking about direct subsidies for American businesses. Which for them is basically communism.
“We’re going to subsidise them and we’ll give them some money because it’s not their fault,” he said on the tarmac last night. “They’ve been doing very well. They did very well under me. Even if you look at the ranchers, the ranchers for the first time in years have made some money, but the beef prices are up a little bit. So, we’ll have to make a determination, but the ranchers are very happy because, you know, for many years they suffered. Now they’re making a little money. They’re making some money and that’s a good thing. You know, I’m happy about that. So, we’ll see. But we’ll see beyond that point. We’ll see.”
Argentina heads to the polls for a midterm election tomorrow, in which Milei is expected to be absolutely clobbered.
