2028 VISION…

Steve Bannon claims there’s a “plan” to keep Donald Trump in office after 2028. But Trump is already enacting a sweeping plan to maintain power in the near term.

• MAGA Godfather Steve Bannon is known for his grandiose provocations. After all, this is the same guy who created the “flood the zone with shit” strategy, in which President Donald Trump and his allies generate so much head-spinning news that it feels impossible to keep track of the actual damage they’re doing. It’s hard to know when to take this silver-haired former convict literally — but once in a while, you simply can’t ignore what spews from his mouth.

• “He’s going to get a third term. Trump is going to be president in ‘28 and people ought to just get accommodated with that,” Bannon told The Economist, hinting that there’s already a “plan” in the works. “We have to finish what we started.”

• What about the Constitution?! you may ask in horror. Bannon shrugged. There are “many different alternatives” to securing at least one more term for the president, he said. Bannon may not be totally wrong, according to legal experts, because of the way the 22nd Amendment is drafted.

• “The amendment prohibits any person from being elected president more than twice,” Georgetown constitutional law professor Louis Michael Seidman told What A Day. For example, Trump could be elected vice president and take over if the president resigns. “Is this likely to happen? Probably not,” he added. “But you have to remember whom we are dealing with, so the real answer is ‘who knows.’”

• Bannon oscillated between two rationales: It would be the “will of the American people” to keep Trump in office — and the direct wishes of the big man in the sky. “Trump is a vehicle of divine providence,” Bannon said of a non-churchgoing, thrice-married convicted felon.

Whether Bannon is bullshitting or not, MAGA definitely has a plot to amass power long before the presidential election.

• Trump knows he can’t enact his agenda without control of the White House, the Senate, and the House (not to mention the Supreme Court). So, he decided to bend the rules, demanding that Republican states redraw their congressional districts to push Democrats out and raise the GOP’s odds of retaining control after next year’s midterms. This anti-democratic mission could be successful, though blue states are fighting back.

• Behind the scenes, Trump has been raising an absurd amount of money for his own political war chest — reportedly upwards of $600 million, with a goal of $1 billion — which is very unusual for a lame-duck president. What is his plan? Use that money to boost Republicans around the country. In fact, he’s already injecting cash into some races on the down low, according to a top White House official.

• “The president is spending already,” White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair told Punchbowl, though he doesn’t “always advertise it.” Blair didn’t name any races that Trump is already involved in.

• “I’m quite confident that money will not be our limiting factor,” Blair added, speaking of the midterms. “[Trump] knows how to deploy resources, and at the end of the day, he will spend what it takes and help his team win.”

In his interview, Bannon offered the MAGA ethos moving forward: “We can’t be beaten if we don’t quit.”

SHUTDOWN AND OUT

Welcome to Day 25 of the government shutdown. I’m thinking today about the thousands of federal workers who missed their first full paycheck, right ahead of holiday season.

As each day passes, it becomes more likely that this will become the longest government shutdown in history — eclipsing the 35-day shutdown during Donald Trump’s first term.

Lawmakers say the shutdown has an expiration date, even as both sides wait for each other to cave to the political pressure.

“I’ve believed from the beginning that it’s got to end before Thanksgiving,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) told What A Day. “Nobody — especially the Republicans — is going to want America’s families sitting around the table talking about this act of massive recklessness and spite toward the American people,” he added “I hope the Republicans will come to their senses as Donald Trump’s poll numbers continue to plummet.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) also thinks it will end in a “week or two,” but he disagrees on how that will happen.

“[Democrats] always come to the table ultimately,” Paul told Politico. “I think it’s an untenable position, and eventually they will come back and they will negotiate and they will vote yes, open the government, and then they’ll get a future negotiation on these Obamacare subsidies. That’s the way it will end.”

Average Obamacare premiums are expected to spike 30 percent next year, which could affect 17 million Americans, according to documents reviewed by the Washington Post.

Who’s gonna blink first? It’s hard to predict, but I have a new name for this shutdown: “The Staring Contest From Hell.”

WHAT ELSE?

Inflation in September rose at a pace not seen since January, according to the new government data. Gasoline jumped 4.1 percent last month, and food and energy costs increased to a 3 percent annual rate. The takeaway: Stubborn inflation is still here no matter what Donald Trump says, with everyday goods 25 percent more expensive than before the pandemic.

New York Attorney General Letitia James pleaded not guilty in federal court today, on dubious mortgage fraud charges brought by the Trump administration. Her trial is scheduled for January.

The Defense Department accepted $130 million to cover military salaries during the shutdown — from a single anonymous donor. Trump said that a “friend” had donated the money. One Threads user joked about the news: “You wouldn’t know this friend, he goes to a different school.”

Trump ended trade negotiations with Canada in a huff. Why? He got triggered by an ad our northern neighbors ran, featuring a voiceover from the late former President Ronald Reagan, which warned Americans that tariffs could hurt their jobs. “TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A.,” Trump wrote on social media. “Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.” I can’t wait for U.S. policy to not be conducted like this!

Can you guess who gave Trump the final push to impose tough sanctions on Russia? Secretary of State Marco Rubio… and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. “Do you guys agree with me?” Trump asked before signing off on the sanctions, according to the Wall Street Journal. Both men said yes. Imagine trusting Pete with… anything…

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is expected to endorse NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani after months of pressure to do so. There’s less than two weeks until the election, but better late than never I guess!

“House of Dynamite,” a new movie about the possibility of a nuclear attack against the United States, premiered on Netflix today. It sounds cool and everything, but I don’t know if I wanna watch how a competent government would respond to such a threat… and then think about how the current one would. No thanks! I will choose to protect my peace this weekend.

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE EMAIL…

Blue Jays manager John Schneider wants Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani to give back some merch before the teams face off in the World Series tonight. “I hope he brought his hat, the Blue Jay hat that he took from us in our meeting,” Schneider joked, referencing talks they had before Ohtani signed with Los Angeles. “And the jacket for [Ohtani’s dog] Decoy … It’s like, give us our stuff back already.” Through a translator, Ohtani responded: “It’s in my garage.”

A family-run German business is using the Louvre heist for some light-hearted marketing, after learning that the thieves used its furniture lift in their heist. The company’s new slogan is “when you need to move fast,” and it markets the lift as being able to carry “up to 400kg of treasures at 42m per minute — as quiet as a whisper.” Genius.

More than 100,000 pumpkins adorned the Klaistow farm outside Berlin, Germany, this year for its 22nd annual pumpkin festival. The theme this year is celebrating powerful women, with massive sculptures of Frida Kahlo, Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, and others made from gourds.

A Chinese man has gained millions of followers on social media because of his impressively accurate Trump impressions. I love this one filmed on the Great Wall of China, in which he rants about “Mexi-golians.”

A 93-year-old man was reunited with his lost dog, a 7-year-old yellow lab named Sunny, after rescuers used his sock to lure her home. Sunny’s owner thinks she scaled a six-foot fence in an effort to follow him to the grocery store. “She’s my best pal. She’s an amazing doggy,” he said. “Without her, there’s nothing.” Brb, I’m sobbing.

Credit: Norm Feigenbaum