Newsom warns Trump and Steve Bannon are 'not screwing around' about possible 2028 run
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA: California Governor Gavin Newsom has expressed deep concern over recent remarks from Donald Trump and Steve Bannon suggesting the president could attempt to run for office again in 2028 despite the 22nd Amendment explicitly prohibiting a third term.
In an interview with ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl, the Democrat said he’s taking the rhetoric from Trump and his allies seriously. The conversation comes amid growing speculation over Trump’s political ambitions beyond his current term.
Newsom recalls Trump’s 'fourth term' joke from Oval Office meeting
During the interview, Gavin Newsom recounted a striking exchange with Donald Trump earlier this year inside the Oval Office.
“He was showing me a photo of... I turned around, he was at the Resolute [Desk], and he goes, ‘Look over there,’” Newsom recalled. “I said, ‘Third term?’ He goes, ‘No, fourth.’ And it was FDR’s painting up on the wall. I’m like, here we go.”
Newsom described the moment as a glimpse into Trump’s mindset, someone who, in his view, tests the limits of what people will tolerate. “He knows exactly what we’re going to do,” the California Democrat added, likening Trump’s behavior to a French saying: ‘He pi**es on the grasshoppers to hear them sing.’
Steve Bannon fuels speculation with 2028 remarks
The controversy began last week when Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former White House strategist, told The Economist that “there’s a plan” in place for the commander-in-chief to secure a third term. Bannon did not elaborate, but the statement reignited widespread debate about Trump’s future political ambitions.
Trump himself added to the speculation when he told reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday that he “would love to do it,” referring to running again in 2028, despite constitutional limits.
Newsom warns of dangerous normalization
“What I’ve noticed, what we all have experienced, I hope we’re absorbing in our souls is that I don’t think he takes himself seriously, but he iterates,” Gavin Newsom said in the interview. “He throws things out, and he plays with it, and he sees how people react, and it manifests. Once a mind is stretched, it never goes back to its original form.”
The Democratic governor argued that Trump’s repeated flirtations with authoritarian ideas risk normalizing dangerous political behavior. “That’s my concern,” he noted. “The more we’re talking about this and we need to be look at what he’s doing with masked agents, with federalizing the Guard, with voter suppression.”
Newsom says he's 'deeply concerned'
Gavin Newsom went further, accusing Donald Trump of corruption and misuse of taxpayer funds.
“Look what he’s trying to do to rig the elections: North Carolina, Missouri, Florida, Texas. Not just the $400 million plane, but the billion dollars of your tax money as we’re cutting food stamps to pay for the damn plane so he can take that toy home with his foundation when he’s 93 or whatever he’s done with his fourth or fifth term," he said.
The governor concluded with a stark warning: “I’m deeply concerned about it. And guys like Bannon, they’re not screwing around. They’re not screwing around.”
