Trump ally's plan for an impossible third term

PLUS: Do bright lights banish winter blues? | How AI will disrupt banks | The psychology of Celebrity Traitors | Some brilliant ideas for weekend film, TV and sporting viewing

Author

Neil McIntosh
October 25, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

👋 Good morning! It’s Saturday 25 October 2025. I’m Neil McIntosh, editor of The Early Line, and it’s great to have you here.

📣 You’re reading the weekend edition of The Early Line. Paying subscribers get the full version, with six talking points and film, TV and sporting recommendations for the week ahead.

They also have my huge thanks for making the whole newsletter possible. If you’d like to join their ranks - thankyou! - you can upgrade here.

And if that’s not for you, no problem: see you on Monday when the free Early Line is back at 7am.

Have a wonderful weekend, all!

🌦️ Weather: Today will be brighter and drier than tomorrow for Glasgow, Edinburgh and Inverness. Aberdeen, however, gets the rain (mostly) today, with (mostly) sunnier skies tomorrow. London will be pretty pleasant all weekend. (Here’s the UK forecast).

SIX THINGS TO TALK ABOUT
Trump’s third term | Where cryptocurrency came from | Do bright lights banish winter blues? | How AI will disrupt banks | The psychology of Celebrity Traitors | Are these LA mansions seedy or spectacular?

🍸 🍸”He’s gonna get a third term,” says Steve Bannon, flatly, in an interview with Economist editor Zanny Minton Beddoes. “He” is, of course, Donald Trump.

How exactly that will happen will be vague, a little like convicted felon Bannon’s own role with the White House: he talks of “we” a lot, and there’s no reason to doubt he’s got some sort of inside track, at the least.

The means to achieving a third term will emerge, he assures us. Trump is “a vehicle of divine providence,” says Bannon, but it may be machinations temporal, rather than spiritual, that secure a further term that should - by most readings of the US constitution - be impossible. Bannon doesn’t regard it as an obstacle.

Minton Beddoes calls their chat both fascinating and terrifying, and warns its full of both Bannon’s astute observations, and wild falsehoods. It’s a fascinating meeting between a classical liberal, and a powerful populist nationalist. (🎥 See the clip on Instagram) (🎥 See the full interview on Economist.com)

Upgrade to read the full Party Line, including:

  • Can “light therpy” lamps help beat the winter blues? Scientists offer their verdict.

  • Where the hell did crypto come from - and where’s it going?

  • And an extraordinary pair of LA mansions go on sale - complete with slightly seedy “pleasure suite”. Yes, there are pictures.

PLUS: find top TV, film and sporting picks - because even if the weather is terrible, you can still have a wonderful weekend.

Subscribe to The Early Line to read the rest

To enjoy the rest of today's Party Line, become a paying subscriber. You'll get web access to the rest of this post immediately, and the full edition emailed to you every Saturday from next week. Paid members also have full archive and commenting permission on The Early Line's website and, of course, my huge gratitude - because they sustain The Early Line for all.

Already a paying subscriber? Sign In.

Reply

or to participate.