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When Donald Trump delivered the keynote address at the New York Young Republican Club’s 111th Annual Gala on Saturday night, much of the former president’s rhetoric was unremarkable — with one big exception. Politico reported:
“[Peter] Baker today in the New York Times said that I want to be a dictator,” Trump said, referencing an article from the newspaper’s chief White House correspondent. “I didn’t say that. I said I want to be a dictator for one day. You know why I wanted to be a dictator? Because I want a wall, and I want to drill, drill, drill,” Trump said, adding that Democrats’ “newest hoax” is to label him a threat to democracy.
For those who might benefit from a refresher, let’s recap.
The prohibitive front-runner for the GOP nomination, with little subtlety, has spent much of the year touting an authoritarian-style vision for the United States. Under the Republican’s preferred approach, he would seize control of government departments and agencies that have historically operated with independence, enact radical anti-immigration plans, use government powers to crack down on journalists, and hire right-wing lawyers who will be positioned to help Trump politicize federal law enforcement and exact revenge against his perceived political foes.
He’s also been quite candid about issuing pardons to politically allied criminals and labeling his opponents “vermin,” seemingly indifferent to the word’s 1930s-era antecedents.
It was against this backdrop that Trump sat down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity last week for a town-hall-style event in Iowa, where the candidate said he wouldn’t be a dictator if he returned to the White House — “except for Day One.” Offered an opportunity to explain himself, the former president suggested that he’d use dictatorial powers to “close the border” and approve increased oil drilling.
When the host tried to help his guest, the GOP frontrunner doubled down.
“I love this guy,” Trump added, referring to 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.”
Almost immediately, Republican officials insisted that the former president was kidding about creating a temporary dictatorship. On Saturday night, Trump stepped on their defenses and left little doubt that he was quite sincere.
To hear Trump tell it, he doesn’t appear to believe there’s anything especially wrong with wanting to create a temporary dictatorship. He envisions a model in which he would temporarily abandon the United States’ system of government, build a border wall that he claims to have already built, and expand oil production despite the fact that the Biden administration has already done that.
In other words, there’s no real reason for Trump to abandon democracy and establish a “Day One” dictatorship, but the Republican apparently likes the idea anyway.
What’s more, his denial on Saturday night, to the extent that his comments deserve such a label, was telling: He rejected the idea that he wants to be a dictator, before quickly adding, “I said I want to be a dictator for one day.”
Except — and this is the important part — one-day dictatorships are not okay. The idea that the Republican’s position is somehow tolerable because he only wants to exercise authoritarian rule for a brief period is not just utterly bonkers, it reflects an inherent hostility to the bedrock principles that serve as the foundation for the American experiment.
All of which brings us back to the GOP officials who felt entirely comfortable ignoring the initial comments, confident in the notion that the former president was kidding. Now that he’s made clear that he wasn’t, do they still not care?
This post updates our related earlier coverage.