TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — As Donald Trump faces growing scrutiny over his increasingly authoritarian and violent rhetoric, Fox News host Sean Hannity gave his longtime friend a chance to assure the American people that he wouldn’t abuse power or seek retribution if he wins a second term.
But instead of offering a perfunctory answer brushing off the warnings, Trump stoked the fire.
“Except for day one,” the GOP front-runner said Tuesday night before a live audience in Davenport, Iowa. “I want to close the border, and I want to drill, drill, drill.”
And in case anyone missed it, he reenacted the exchange.
“We love this guy,” Trump said of Hannity. “He says, ‘You’re not going to 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.'”
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Trump has a long history of making inflammatory proclamations that spark outrage from detractors and generate a stream of headlines, without ever coming to fruition. Often they are made in a tongue-in-cheek manner that allows Trump’s allies to claim he was joking and cite the backlash as another example of a candidate skilled at baiting an out-of-touch press that takes him too literally.
Trump campaign aides said Thursday the former president was simply trying to trigger the left and the media with his dictator comment, while also seeking to focus attention on the influx of migrants at the border and stubborn inflation, two vulnerabilities for President Joe Biden heading into the 2024 general election.
But the consequences of Trump’s rhetoric have been made all too clear after he refused to accept the results of the 2020 election and a mob of his supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol to stop the certification of Biden’s victory.
The former president, who has long expressed regard for authoritarian leaders and the power they wield, vows vengeance and retribution as he outlines a second-term agenda marked by an unprecedented expansion of executive power, unparalleled interference in the justice system, and a massive purge of civil servants.
Indeed, hours before his remarks were aired, a longtime ally who is widely expected to serve in a top national security role if Trump returns to the White House vowed to target journalists in a second Trump term.
“We’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections,” said Kash Patel, even though numerous federal and local officials, a long list of courts, top former campaign staffers and even Trump’s own attorney general all said there is no evidence of the fraud he alleges.
Biden and other critics seized on Trump’s comments, painting him as a threat to democracy as they seek to turn the 2024 election into another referendum on the former president instead of Biden.
The Biden campaign’s attack, said Trump senior adviser Jason Miller, “is a clear sign that the Democrats believe their only possible pathway to victory is to go scorched earth on President Trump.”
But Trump’s own words are clear.
“In 2016, I declared I am your voice. Today, I add, I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution,” he said in March 2023.
In the months since, Trump repeatedly and explicitly vowed to use the Justice Department to target his enemies in a dramatic break from the long-standing, post-Watergate tradition of independence.
“I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, the entire Biden crime family, and all others involved with the destruction of our elections, borders and our country itself,” he said in a June video.
In an interview with Univision, he went even further. “If I happen to be president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I say, ‘Go down and indict them,'” he said.
Last December, he mused about circumventing the Constitution, arguing that the election fraud he alleges “allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”
He has taken an especially hostile approach to the press, vowing to “rout the fake news media,” calling reporters “THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!” and saying outlets like NBC News and MSNBC should be investigated for treason.
Trump’s extensive policy plans also rely on a dramatic expansion of executive power. He wants to strip tens of thousands of career federal workers of their civil service protections, has vowed new ideological tests for those entering the country and has talked about increasing the military’s role on domestic soil, including sending the National Guard to the border and to cities like Chicago to tackle crime.
He has continued to praise authoritarian leaders like China’s Xi Jinping, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, while dehumanizing his enemies as “scum” and “thugs” who “live like vermin.”
Meanwhile, Ken Cuccinelli, a top immigration official in Trump’s administration who now leads a super PAC supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president, called the former president’s dictator remarks “provocative” and vintage Trump.
“Do I think he’s trying to needle everybody? Yes, I do. He enjoys doing that,” Cuccinelli said. “Does it help improve America? No, it doesn’t. And he doesn’t care about that because his first concern is Donald Trump.”
A look at the 19 people charged in the Georgia indictment connected to Trump’s election scheme
Key people in the Georgia election fraud case
Donald Trump
Rudy Giuliani
John Eastman
Mark Meadows
Sidney Powell
Kenneth Chesebro
Prosecutors have said Chesebro, an attorney, worked with Republicans in numerous swing states Trump lost, including Georgia, in the weeks after the November 2020 election at the direction of Trump’s campaign. Chesebro worked on the coordination and execution of a plan to have 16 Georgia Republicans sign a certificate declaring falsely that Trump won and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors.
Jeffrey Clark
Jenna Ellis
Ray Smith
A Georgia-based lawyer, Smith was involved in multiple lawsuits challenging the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. He also gathered witnesses to provide testimony before Georgia legislative subcommittee hearings held in December 2020 on alleged issues with the state’s election.
Robert Cheeley
A Georgia lawyer, Cheeley presented video clips to legislators of election workers at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta and alleged the workers were counting votes twice or sometimes three times. He spoke to the lawmakers after Giuliani.
Michael Roman
A former White House aide who served as the director of Trump’s election day operations, Roman was involved in efforts to put forth a set of fake electors after the 2020 election.
David Shafer
Shawn Still
He was one of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate falsely stating that Trump had won the state and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors. Still was the finance chairman for the state GOP in 2020 and served as a Georgia delegate to the Republican National Convention that year. He was elected to the Georgia state Senate in November 2022 and represents a district in Atlanta’s suburbs.
Stephen Cliffgard Lee
Prosecutors say Cliffgard Lee, a pastor, worked with others to try to pressure Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman and her daughter after Trump and his allies falsely accused them of pulling fraudulent ballots from a suitcase during the vote count. Lee allegedly knocked on Freeman’s door, frightening her and causing her to call 911 three times, prosecutors said in a court filing last year.
Harrison William Prescott Floyd
Also known as Willie Lewis Floyd III, he served as director of Black Voices for Trump, and is accused of recruiting Lee to arrange a meeting with Freeman and Chicago-based publicist Trevian Kutti.
Trevian C. Kutti
Prosecutors allege Kutti, a publicist, claimed to have high-level law enforcement connections. They say Freeman met with Kutti at a police precinct, where she brought Floyd into the conversation on a speakerphone. Prosecutors say Kutti presented herself as someone who could help Freeman but then pressured her to falsely confess to election fraud.
Cathy Latham
Scott Graham Hall
An Atlanta-area bail bondsman, Hall was allegedly involved in commandeering voting information that was the property of Dominion Voting Systems from Coffee County, a small south Georgia jurisdiction. Also charged in the scheme were Powell, Latham and former county elections supervisor Misty Hampton.
Misty Hampton
She was the elections director in Coffee County. Hampton was present in the county elections office on Jan. 7, 2021, when a computer forensics team copied software and data from the county’s election equipment. She also allowed two other men who had been active in efforts to question the 2020 election results to access the elections office later that month and to spend hours inside with the equipment.