GRAPEVINE, Texas — Barely two months into President Donald Trump’s second administration, MAGA supporters were plotting how to keep the Republican leader in power beyond a second term— to the horror of Democrats.
MAGA was riding high with a dominant Trump who returned to power and quickly set forth to reshape Washington and expand presidential powers.
But one year later, the movement for a third Trump term has significantly cooled down to a flicker, as the White House is battling an affordability crisis, MAGA infighting, and a war with Iran in the Middle East.
Several 2026 CPAC attendees repeatedly told the Washington Examiner that they were instead looking beyond Trump, for a different Republican to run for president in 2028.
“He’s got to pass the torch to (Vice President) JD Vance,” said Matthew Kingston, 26, from Lubbock, Texas. “I think we deserve a younger slate of leaders coming up the pike.”
Trump would turn 82 years old in 2028 if he did attempt to run for another presidential term, which would make him the oldest person to serve as president, a record he already currently holds.
Ron Eller, a congressional candidate in Mississippi’s 2nd Congressional District, simply cited the Constitution as to why he didn’t support another Trump campaign.
“I will tell you under the 22nd amendment, which was passed February 27, 1951, that’s a nonstarter,” said Eller, the chairman of the group Term Limits on Congress. “I do like President Trump. I think he’s a great president. He’ll go down in history as one of the great ones, but it’ll be somebody else’s turn.”
The push to amend the Constitution to allow Trump to serve a third term never truly caught fire in Congress despite a resolution from Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) last year.
At the CPAC exhibition room, one marketer was selling sparkly, bedazzled Trump 2028 jackets.
“I started making these jackets not long after the president, well, candidate Trump, this last time recently, chose me as a national delegate,” said Deborah Yana from Des Moines, Iowa. “So I went to the RNC. Never been there before, and decided to make myself jackets. So I hit the floor there, and my jackets just went.”
But even Yana conceded that a 2028 run was not likely for Trump.
“It’s just a fun thing. It upsets Democrats, but, yeah, it’s a fun thing. I mean, if I had my choice for sure, I would love that,” she said. “But, well, I like, I like Vance, I like (Secretary of State Marco) Rubio. I like both of them. They’d be a great team.”
Sandy Schoepke, a conservative merchandise vendor who travels the country selling pro-Trump gear, has found an unlikely hit in her “Trump 2028” hats, not because supporters expect a third term, but because of the reaction they spark. Schoepke, who is in the process of moving from Georgia to Texas, said the hats have become one of her more popular items at GOP events, calling them “a good, divisive thing for our opposite party” that gets critics “all wrapped up.”
To boost sales, she’s even running a promotion: “If they hit two hats or spend $50, they can get the Trump 2028 for free,” she said, adding she wants the hats “out there” so people can “go out there and irritate more people.” Schoepke framed the slogan as more tongue-in-cheek than literal, noting that “no one ever said that President Trump was going to do that,” and pointing instead to his broader political brand and family.
Many CPAC attendees also stressed their support for Trump’s administration yet were not pushing for a 2028 run.
“I don’t think he will,” said Anne Diaz, 64, retired from Georgetown, Texas. “And I think he’s doing everything he can now under his power. And I think he’s doing a great job.”
Even Steve Bannon appeared to cool down on stoking flames about 2028 — for himself.
In a response to a comment from the Washington Examiner about whether he would run last year, Bannon’s war room responded, “Trump ‘28.”
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Bannon came in second place during the 2025 CPAC straw poll as a leading contender for the 2028 GOP presidential nomination.
But at this year’s CPAC, Bannon told the Washington Examiner definitively, “I’m not gonna run. I’m not a politician.”
