Comedian Bill Maher on Friday alluded to the notion that President Trump might seek a third term following the demolition of the White House’s East Wing. Grand Ballroom,
Maher told his panelists on HBO’s “Real Time,” former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and former Biden White House communications director Kate Bedingfield, that “I can’t be that crazy about everything.”
Steele emphasized what the symbolism of the demolition meant. Maher replied, “The symbolism is that he’s not going. That’s what bothers me. Who keeps a huge ballroom if you’re going?”
Maher later accused Trump of being “drunk with power.”
He commented on the East Wing demolition at other points in the show, referencing former President Nixon installing a bowling alley in the White House and former President Obama converting tennis courts into basketball courts.
As far as Trump’s renovations go, Maher joked that the president won’t stop the demolition “until he finds out [Jeffrey] The Epstein Files.”
White House officials reportedly said 90,000 square feet privately funded ballroom That would be completed before Trump’s second term ends in 2029.
Maher’s comments follow controversial comments made this week by former White House adviser Steve Bannon. in one Interview with The Economist Released Thursday, Bannon said there was a “plan” to exceed the two-term limit set out in the 22nd Amendment.
“Trump is going to be president in ’28 and people should just adjust to it,” he said.
Bannon did not elaborate but said, “At the appropriate time we will explain what the plan is.” When editor-in-chief Jeannie Minton Beddoes pressed him about the “coherence of the things you just told me”, Bannon said Trump needed another term.
“If the American people, with the mechanisms we have, put Trump back in office, are the American people breaking the Constitution?” Bannon replied. “Could the American people be going against the spirit of the Constitution, ma’am?”
Minton Beddoes said yes and the result is a “populist justification for semi-dictatorship”. Bannon disagreed, saying Trump has compromised on domestic and foreign issues.
While Trump has joked about running for a third term before, even during the campaign before his defeat in 2020, he said in an interview Said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in August that he “probably won’t” run in 2028.
“I would like to run,” Trump said. “I have the best poll numbers I’ve ever had.”
But in March, Trump said he was “Not kidding” About the opportunity to run for a third term.
“In many surveys, in actual surveys, we’re in the high 70s, and you’re seeing it,” he told NBC News’ Kristen Welker at the time. “And, and you know, we’re very popular. And you know, a lot of people would like me to do that. But, I mean, I basically tell them, we still have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.”
22nd amendment Prohibits presidents from seeking a third term. The amendment was ratified in 1951, years after President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented fourth term.
To repeal the amendment, Trump would need the support of a constitutional convention called by two-thirds of the House of Representatives and the Senate or two-thirds of state legislatures. The amendment would also require approval from three-fourths of state legislatures.
