Every now and then the Donald Trump accidentally lets slip the truth. The famously truth-adverse former president once admitted he lost the 2020 election. Recently he blurted out that he’s “waging an all-out war on democracy.” And last week he said, if re-elected, he would be a dictator, if only on the first day of his new presidency. As Maya Angelou famously said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.” She probably meant that even if they later said they were joking. Sure enough, that’s what Trump has now done.
Per Raw Story, after Trump’s dictator line inevitably fueled scores of alarmist headlines, the big guy took to his rinky-dink Twitter clone to play damage control, trying to defend it like he did his many recent brain farts. This one was even less convincing.
“Fake News writer Peter ‘Obama’ Baker of the Failing New York Times … just wrote, in a major, front page story, that I want to be a Dictator,” Trump steamed. “But doesn’t mention it was said in a joking manner, and completed with ‘but only for a day, because I’m going to close the Border, and DRILL, DRILL, DRILL,’ a much different attitude and meaning!”
It’s worth noting that Trump didn’t actually deny what he said at last week’s town hall. In fact, despite calling it “fake news,” he even repeated his claims that he would be a dictator, if only to ram through two things that would require more than a presidential edict to enact.
During the town hall that birthed this quote, Sean Hannity, who moderated (and was the only one who asked any questions), tried very hard to give Trump the softball version of the question, asking him, “Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?”
The correct answer to this, of course, is no. Trump couldn’t even do that.
“Except for day one,” he replied. He then mocked Hannity, who was visibly horrified that he failed this basic test. He then added, “I want to close the border and I want to drill, drill, drill.”
Hannity tried to play clean-up, saying, “That’s not retribution,”
“We love this guy,” he said, mocking him some more. “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, okay?”
Even while trying to spin this exchange, Trump only wound up doubling down. Luckily it’s not like dictators ever grow tired of being dictators and go back to normal. If Democrats were smart they’d play that clip every hour until Election Day 2024.
(Via Raw Story)
Source: https://uproxx.com/viral/trump-claimed-joking-about-being-dictator/