How crazy would a second Donald Trump presidency be? We didn’t find out in 2021, and perhaps we won’t find out in 2025. The next election is about 11 months off, and already alarms are going off. There’s talk — including from Trump himself — about all the crazy things he has planned should American voters let him back in the White House. Will he unleash the National Guard on protesters? Deport scores of immigrants? Jail his many enemies? If any of that worries you, relax: The guy who’s not very good with the truth says he’ll only be a dictator for a day.
Hannity asks Trump for a second time if he has plans to abuse power. Trump admits he plans to do some dictatorial things on "day one" of his second term. pic.twitter.com/51b9I8bIJ7
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 6, 2023
Per Mediaite, the former president sat down with close pal and professional softball Trump interviewer Sean Hannity for a Fox News town hall in Iowa. At one point, Hannity asked him an actual hard question: Did he plan on going full autocrat? The first time Trump ducked the question. But Hannity asked him again, albeit in the kindest way possible: “Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?” The answer probably didn’t make Hannity happy.
“Except for day one,” replied Trump. As Hannity squirmed, Trump joked to the crowd, “Look, he’s going crazy” before repeating, “Except for day one.”
When Hannity what dictator-y things he meant to do on Day One, Trump replied, “I want to close the border and I want to drill, drill, drill.”
“That’s not retribution,” Hannity tried to assure viewers, which cracked Trump up.
“We love this guy,” he said. “He says, ‘You’re not gonna be a dictator, are you?’ 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, ok?”
“That sounds to me like you’re going back to the policies when you were president,” Hannity said, again trying to reassure more middle-of-the-road voters.
“That’s exactly,” Trump said, laughing.
The first time Hannity asked Trump about his potential for going full-Mussolini, he pointed to something he said at CPAC earlier this year: “I am your warrior, I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.” Hannity implored him to say he wouldn’t “use the government to go after people.” That set him off.
“You mean like they’re using right now,” Trump replied, alluding to the 91 criminal charges brought against him, none of them by the Biden administration, as he and his cronies have been claiming.
Trump then seemed to humble-brag about how he has three more indictments than Al Capone, who he called “one of the greatest of all time, if you like criminals.” He then looked up wistfully at the heavens while making a curious statement: “I wonder what my father and mother would say looking down.” Does he think they’d be impressed?
Anyway, the correct answer to “Will you be a dictator?” is supposed to be “No.” The frontrunner for the GOP presidential ticket couldn’t even do that.
(Via Mediaite)