Former President Donald Trump described himself as the savior of democracy as he repeated his claim that he wanted to be a “dictator for a day” during a raucous speech at a GOP convention in New York City.
Last week, Trump made waves the night before the fourth GOP debate, musing that he has no plans to be a dictator, “except for day one” if elected in 2024.
During his keynote address at the 111th annual Young Republicans Club of New York Gala, filled with Trump’s greatest jokes and rhetoric from the campaign trail, the 45th president revisited the controversy.
“[Peter] Baker today in the New York Times said that I want to be a dictator,” Trump complained, referring to a report from the news outlet.
“I didn’t say that. I said I want to be a dictator for a day. You know why I want to be a dictator? Because I want a wall, and I want to drill, drill, drill,” Trump insisted.
The 45th president clarified his comments about wanting to be a dictator for a day. AFP via Getty Images
Trump also claimed that the Democrats’ “latest trick” was calling him a threat to democracy.
The crowed, full of MAGA stars like Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Col.), praised him.
Last Tuesday, Trump originally sparked a frenzy about him seeking to become a dictator during a town hall with Fox News’ Sean Hannity and said he only wanted it on day one.
“I want to close the border and I want to drill, drill, drill,” Trump said at the time. “Besides, I’m not a dictator.”
His remarks drew fierce controversy and came amid sweeping warnings from disenfranchised Democrats and Republicans that he aspires to be a tyrant.
His critics have pointed to the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots, Trump’s 2020 election denial, and fake international dictatorships as evidence.
Donald Trump called the Democrats characteristic that he is a threat to democracy, a ‘fraud’. Aristide Economopoulos
“Thank God, it’s only one day,” President Biden joked at a fundraiser in Los Angeles last week.
“Sean Hannity actually thought he was helping Trump,” Trump ally Steve Bannon complained afterward. “Even asking that question shows you’re an idiot. And we don’t have time for fools, bro. This is war, and we have no time for sunshine patriots and this nonsense.”
At another point in Trump’s wide-ranging speech on Saturday, the 77-year-old whined about criticism he received for calling Chinese leader Xi Jinping “brilliant”.
“He controls 1.4 billion people with iron nails. They want me to say he’s just of ordinary intelligence,” Trump said. “I can’t say bad.”
Trump then suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strongman was “sharp,” and gave similar praise to French President Emmanuel Macron.
The former president delivered his campaign trail rhetorical greatest hits during the gala. AP
In the same speech, Trump also described himself as a defender of democracy, dismissing criticism that he is a threat as “misinformation” and “hoax”.
Trump, who faces 91 criminal charges, thinks that Biden is a “real threat.”
“The radicals are abandoning the Democrats, their fake news allies have exposed their latest hoax that Donald J. And the Republican Party is a threat to democracy,” Trump lamented.
“This is their new line. Here we go again — ‘Russia, Russia, Russia,’ ‘Mueller, Mueller, Mueller,’ ‘Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine.’ One fraud after another,” he added.
“But no, I’m not a threat. I will save democracy. The threat is Crooked Joe Biden.”
Trump is the 2024 GOP front-runner to be the party’s standard bearer in 2024.
Donald Trump is the runaway frontrunner in the 2024 GOP primary. Getty Images
He took aim at rival Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, needed California’s Gavin Newsom to beat him in a debate and took another jab.
“He looks like a bobble head doll. I don’t like him because I support him and I voted for him,” Trump said.
The DeSantis campaign generally claimed that Trump’s attacks on the governor came from his fear that Floridians could defeat him — something the Trump campaign denied.
The Post reached out to the DeSantis campaign for comment.
Trump has a 47.6 percentage point lead nationally in the 2024 GOP primary in the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate.
The first GOP contest is scheduled for January 15, 2024 in the Iowa caucuses.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
