The tone is set. Donald Trump promises he will not be a dictator if he is re-elected in 2024… except on the first day of his re-election. The former President of the United States refused to rule out an abuse of power during an interview broadcast on Fox News Channel on Tuesday, December 5. The host, Sean Hannity, asked him to respond to growing Democratic criticism of his authoritarian rhetoric.
Donald Trump has once again entered the race for the White House and has established himself as the big favorite in the Republican primaries. His program, detailed in “Project 2025”, is more radical than that of his first mandate. Because the billionaire’s priority is to “take revenge”. In particular, he plans a massive purge of the Federal Administration which, according to him, has slowed down his reforms. And intends to strengthen the prerogatives of the executive. This action plan thus attracted the wrath of the Democrats, whom Trump described as “vermin”.
To respond to Democratic criticism, Trump supporter Sean Hannity twice asked him to deny that he would abuse his power to exact revenge on his political opponents if re-elected. “Under no circumstances will you promise America tonight that you will never abuse your power in retaliation against anyone?” asked the presenter, during the interview organized in Iowa.
“Except the first day,” replied the ex-president, before laughing. “I want to close the border and I want to drill, drill, drill,” he continued, to the applause of spectators. Donald Trump refers to the border with Mexico and his desire to expand oil drilling.
And the Republican candidate reiterated his remarks. “I love this guy,” he said of the Fox News host, before continuing his monologue: “He says to me, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you? not ?” I say, “No, no, no, except for the first day. We close the border and we drill, drill, drill. After that, I am not a dictator.”
These comments caused a reaction from elected Democratic officials close to Joe Biden. The US president’s campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, said in a statement: “Donald Trump told us exactly what he would do if re-elected and tonight […] Americans should believe him.” The chairman of the Democratic National Committee tweeted: “Donald Trump admitting he will be a dictator from day one absolutely disqualifies him from being president.”
Since his defeat in 2020, Donald Trump has spread false claims that the election was stolen from him. A conspiracy that fueled the deadly insurrection by his supporters at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Joe Biden repeatedly warned that Trump was a “threat to democracy” and that a second term for the billionaire could usher in a dangerous era of American autocracy. “We can’t let him win,” said the 81-year-old president on Tuesday, December 5, after announcing: “If Trump wasn’t a candidate, I’m not sure I would be.”
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Trump, meanwhile, tried to turn the tables by claiming in a speech in Iowa on Saturday that Joe Biden is the real “destroyer of American democracy,” The Guardian reports. The Republican nominee also reiterated his long-standing, “and completely baseless” claim that the four criminal indictments against him show Biden is abusing the federal justice system to harm him.
