NEW YORK - Donald Trump said on Dec 5 that he will not become a dictator if he becomes US president again except “on day one”, after warnings from Democrats and some Republicans that America is in danger of becoming an autocracy if he wins the 2024 election.
The Republican presidential candidate had to be asked twice during a televised town-hall event in Iowa to deny that he would abuse power to seek revenge on political opponents if re-elected to the White House.
“No. No. Other than day one,” Trump said, when asked to deny he would become a “dictator” if he wins the November election.
Trump said that on the “day one” he referred to, he would use his presidential powers to close the southern border with Mexico and expand oil drilling.
Trump, seeking a second White House term in a likely election re-match with Democratic President Joe Biden, has frequently promised “retribution” on political opponents if he gains power again.
Targets include Mr Biden, prosecutors who have charged him with dozens of crimes, the Department of Justice and the federal bureaucracy, he said in campaign speeches and TV appearances in 2023.
Trump, the front runner for the Republican presidential nomination, was appearing at a Fox News event before a friendly audience in Davenport, Iowa, the state where the party’s nominating contest kicks off on Jan 15, 2024.
As soon as the event was over, Mr Biden’s campaign manager, Ms Julie Chavez Rodriguez, said in a statement: “Donald Trump has been telling us exactly what he will do if he’s re-elected, and tonight he said he will be a dictator on day one. Americans should believe him.”
Trump was US president between 2017 and 2021, and has refused to concede that he lost to Mr Biden in the 2020 election.
Since then, he has spread false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, a conspiracy that fuelled the deadly insurrection by his supporters at the US Capitol on Jan 6, 2021. His election lies also form a cornerstone of his current White House campaign.
Trump’s rivals for the nomination, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, will appear at a televised debate on Dec 6 at the University of Alabama at 1am GMT (9am Singapore time).
Trump will skip the event, as he has done for the three previous Republican debates.
Mr Biden has repeatedly warned that Trump is a threat to democracy, and that a second Trump term could usher in an unprecedented and dangerous age of American autocracy.
Former US representative Liz Cheney, a Republican and outspoken critic of Trump who co-chaired the congressional probe of the attack on the Capitol, said in media interviews to promote a memoir this week that a Trump dictatorship is a “very real threat” if he wins re-election. REUTERS
