But not after that.
Donald Trump, the former president of the United States who tried to steal the 2020 election, says he’ll be a dictator on day one of a second term.
That’s not the rhetorical excess of the mainstream press, nor is it the cynical spin of a political rival. It’s just what Trump said.
During a town hall in Iowa last night, Fox News’s Sean Hannity tossed Trump what ought to have been softball question. “Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?” Hannity asked. “Except for day one,” Trump replied.
David A. Graham: Trump isn’t merely unhinged
This is a remarkable enough admission—practically every president abuses his power in some way, but few boast about it. What followed was even wilder.
“He says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’” Trump riffed. “I said: ‘No, no, no, other than day one. We’re closing the border and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.’”
It’s not unusual for political candidates to accuse their opponents of being would-be fascists or authoritarians. Rivals of Franklin Roosevelt, Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, and Barack Obama, among many others, warned about these men’s supposed dictatorial ambitions. (Of course, none of those presidents mounted a months-long effort to steal an election, capped by inciting a violent assault on the Capitol.)
What is unusual, and in fact crazy, is for the rival to respond: Yeah, you bet I will.
David Frum: The danger ahead
Predicting the apologetics that anti-anti-Trumpers will employ here isn’t too hard. They’ll insist that this is just rhetorical flourish. They’ll say it’s fine, because he’s promising to limit his self-acknowledged abuse of powers to the noble causes of energy independence and border security. They’ve been using these excuses for years now.
But the people to heed here are Trump and his close allies, who are deliberately employing inflammatory rhetoric. In the same interview, Hannity gave the former president another chance to make a simple, bland statement of respect for laws, and Trump refused. (This is not the first time Hannity has tried to toss Trump a life buoy, only for Trump to fling it away with glee.)
The turnabout onto President Biden is dubious but typical. What’s missing is the easy addendum: And of course I reject these excesses and will get the country back on track. The problem is that everyone knows the former president would abuse his power, even the anti-anti-Trump apologists. And for his diehard supporters, that’s the real sell this time around. He is promising them that he’ll throw out the rulebook and exact revenge on his opponents.
Barton Gellman: How Trump gets away with it
“This is just not rhetoric. We’re absolutely dead serious,” Steve Bannon said yesterday on his podcast. Take that for what you will; the former Trump strategist has a history of trolling. But even if it is just rhetoric, that’s little comfort, given how many Americans are fine with it. Bannon was speaking with the former Trump-administration utility player Kash Patel, who promised to go after the free press.
“Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections—we’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll come after you,” he said. Patel, who’s more intellectually agile than Trump, then walked it back a bit: “We’re actually going to use the Constitution to prosecute them for crimes they said we have always been guilty of but never have.”
Who can be against people being prosecuted if they’ve truly committed crimes? But lying, though deplorable, is not a crime; no one rigged the election; and Patel’s posture is that he’ll find crimes to fit the defendants, not the other way around. The substance aside, Patel is following Trump’s lead: When accused of seeking to abuse power, he is happy to agree.
“This is why they hate us,” he smirked to Bannon. “This is why we’re tyrannical. This is why we’re dictators.”
For apologists, that’s deniability. For Trump’s fans, though, it’s not a joke—it’s the attraction.
Trump Says He’ll Be a Dictator on ‘Day One’
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06.12.2023
But not after that.
Donald Trump, the former president of the United States who tried to steal the 2020 election, says he’ll be a dictator on day one of a second term.
That’s not the rhetorical excess of the mainstream press, nor is it the cynical spin of a political rival. It’s just what Trump said.
During a town hall in Iowa last night, Fox News’s Sean Hannity tossed Trump what ought to have been softball question. “Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?” Hannity asked. “Except for day one,” Trump replied.
David A. Graham: Trump isn’t merely unhinged
This is a remarkable enough admission—practically every president abuses his power in some way, but few boast about it. What followed was even wilder.
“He says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’” Trump riffed. “I said: ‘No, no, no, other than day one. We’re closing the border and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.’”
It’s not unusual........
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