“I think a lot of people like it,” said former President Donald Trump when asked in a recent interview with Time magazine about past comments that he plans to be “dictator” for a day if he wins the 2024 election.
Reporter Eric Cortellessa said he asked Trump – the presumptive GOP presidential candidate – if he understood “why many Americans see such talk of dictatorship as contrary to our most cherished principles.”
Trump said that he didn’t see it that way. In a country that prides itself on freedom, how could that be true? It seems like opinions vary based on who you ask.
As he campaigns for reelection, Trump faces felony charges for his alleged actions to overturn the 2020 presidential election , which he lost to current President Joe Biden. He continues to make unfounded claims about election fraud he insists impacted that election.
Earlier this year, a UMass Amherst poll of more than 1,000 people found that 72% of Republicans believed that Trump was definitely or probably innocent of trying to overturn the election. That’s compared to 88% of Democrats and 58% of voters overall.
Results of that poll also indicated that 74% of Republicans believe Trump’s promise to be a dictator on just the first day of a second term is definitely or probably “a good idea for America” compared to 36% of independents, 13% of Democrats and 39% of all voters.
Last year , Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity he would be a “dictator” for his first day in office if he wins the election. Though the comment generated backlash, he doubled down on it in a speech delivered at the New York Young Republican Club’s 111th Annual Gala .
Around the same time Trump made the comments, a “ Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll asked voters how they thought Trump would act if he is reelected in 2024, to which 56% agreed, including 40% strongly agreeing, that his actions would portray that of a dictator,” per an Audacy report . Interestingly, that poll also found that 59% of voters also felt “Democrats are unfairly trying to scare voters over Trump’s comments,” and around half “believe Trump carries a threat to democracy if elected to another term.”
When Trump made his first “dictator” comment, it was focused mainly on the Southern border.
“I want to close the border, and I want to drill, drill, drill,” he said.
Trump told Time that his remark was sarcastic and made in jest.
“He compares it to an infamous moment from the 2016 campaign, when he encouraged the Russians to hack and leak Hillary Clinton’s emails,” Cortellessa elaborated. “In Trump’s mind, the media sensationalized those remarks too. But the Russians weren’t joking: among many other efforts to influence the core exercise of American democracy that year, they hacked the Democratic National Committee’s servers and disseminated its emails through WikiLeaks.”
This week Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) also warned voters about Trump’s admiration for dictators in an interview with USA Today. These include Trump’s 2022 comment that there was “ love ” behind Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Sanders said voters should also be worried about Trump’s admiration for authoritarian leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is ‘trying to undermine American democracy,’” Audacy reported .
Most Popular
Comments / 0