Late-Night Hosts React to Trump Floating Third Term Idea: ‘Mad King Behavior’

That’s what President Trump floated as he told reporters he was “not joking” about looking into a possible 2028 run and a third term in office. In a regular onslaught of breaking news from this administration, this declaration — which would extend the Trump era into the 2030s — certainly got the attention of late-night television.

Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, and Jon Stewart have been paying closer attention to this administration than even the first time Trump was president, with its unprecedented breaking with traditional politics and this notion standing out in particular.

Most of them seemed to approach the idea from the backdrop of Trump enjoying historic lows in overall popularity and job satisfaction at this term in a presidency.

“Naturally, Trump is responding to historic levels of voter anger by claiming he’s already mulling the idea of illegally staying in office past the end of his term,” said Meyers in his Late Night “A Closer Look” segment.

On The Late Show, Colbert couched it in terms of Trump’s ongoing tariff wars with “every country?”, as he put it, that economists fear will negatively impact the country.

“If you don’t like Trump’s tariffs, and not many people do, don’t you worry. One day he won’t be president,” Colbert told his audience to a raucous cheer — only to complete his thought with one final word: “Maybe?”

He then explored the phrasing used in one headline reading that the president “won’t rule out seeking a third term.”

Colbert asked, “What kind of headline is that? Who cares what he won’t rule out. I won’t rule out lying down on the Krispy Kreme conveyor belt and letting the glaze just take me, but that doesn’t mean it’s gonna happen.”

He continued, noting, “The Constitution forbids it,” specifically citing the 22nd Amendment, which came after FDR and states quite plainly, “‘No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”

Stewart, over on The Daily Show, was trying to grapple with how you can consider something that is clearly not allowed to happen. “What, are you trying to order off-menu from the Constitution?” he asked. “Oh I see you got, whattayagot, two terms here? Uh, but can I get it animal style?”

Over on The Tonight Show, Fallon started exploring what a Trump 2028 presidential run might look like for Trump, even offering up some slogans that he might consider using:

• “Trump ’28: I edited the Constitution with a sharpie, and the Donstitution says it’s legal”
• “Trump ’28: Remember how awesome it was to have a president in his 80s?”
• “Trump ’28: Greenland now worth 300 electoral votes”
• “Trump ’28: It’s totally legal, according to new Supreme Court Justices Jake & Logan Paul”
• “Trump ’28: If you vote for me, I’ll add you to the top secret group chat”

Meanwhile, Meyers argued, “To be clear, there’s no such thing as a third term. Let’s not entertain it like it’s a real thing.”

And yet, he also had to admit, “Republicans have already started laying the groundwork,” showing a clip of one Republican lawmaker introducing a resolution to amend the Constitution to allow a president to run for and serve a third term.

As for Trump himself, without getting into too many specifics, he simply said “there are methods.”

“Yes, there are other methods,” Stewart agreed, adding in a not-so-veiled association with the January 6 insurrection attempt, “I think you tried one a few years ago.”

One possibility out there suggests Vice President J.D. Vance could run for president before then ceding power to him — but that wouldn’t actually work.

Still, Stewart considered it, and even expanded on it. “Have you guys heard of the movie Face/Off?” he asked, while showing a modified image of the film’s movie poster with Trump and Vance’s face. In the film, John Travolta and Nicolas Cage literally switch faces and identities.

“So here’s how it’s going to work,” Stewart said, setting the scene. “Trump will watch that movie as the military seizes power.”

As for how they see the Democrats, or anyone responding, Stewart referred back to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer backpedaling and supporting the GOP budget to avoid a shutdown, arguing that he was waiting for Trump’s popularity to go lower before he acts.

“So what would happen if Trump tried to run again? Stewart was confident “Chuck Schumer will say, ‘Uh, I will allow it because in the third term we think his popularity will go down to 30.'”

Meyers had a similar thought, quipping that “Schumer said that Democrats will have a plan in place to stop him — by 2032.”

But the bottom line for these comedians who have been following Trump’s ascension to power for the last decade is that this should not come as a surprise to anyone. In fact, Trump said as much before this latest election.

“This is mad king behavior,” Meyers said of Trump considering staying in office beyond his Constitutionally-limited terms. At the same time, he had to concede, “Trump is governing like the dictator he said he would be.”