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The Latest Democrat-Media Hoax: “Trump admits he wants to be a ‘Dictator on Day One’”

[The Democrats] are acting as though they are dictators and doing [so] in the name of democracy.  … They are doing exactly what they are [saying] Trump will do if he is elected again.  … They are undermining our democracy and going against the constitution and the Declaration of Independence that says that “we the people” get to choose our President.

Former Democrat Party rising star and presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, Foxnews, Feb. 10, 2024

The Democrat-News-media Colluders (or DNC) have worked themselves into another hysteria claiming that Trump has admitted that if he wins the election in 2024, he will become a dictator.  Of course, Trump said no such thing.  The offending statement came when Sean Hannity gave Trump the opportunity to rebut the DNC claims that he is an authoritarian by asking him, “You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’.   Trump replied, “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.”

In response to this innocuous joke, AP trumpets that “Trump’s vow to only be a dictator on ‘day one’ follows growing worry over his authoritarian rhetoric.”  Politico frets that “It’s not clear if he meant that statement to be a promise, a quip or a threat.”  The New Republic creatively rewrites Trump’s remark to assert that “Trump Will Be a Dictator on Day One and Every Day Thereafter.”  ABC’s Jonathan Karl states that Trump’s remark “raises new alarms,” not the old fake media-driven Trump-Russia Collusion hoax alarms, about what Trump will do if elected.  The Huffington Post says that Trump admitted that “He Would Only Abuse Power on Day 1 Of New Presidency”.  Hillary Clinton, who tried to cheat the American people of a fair election in 2016 when she and the Democrat National Committee purchased the Russian dossier to frame Trump for colluding with Russia, comically comparing Trump to Hitler, said that in his remark “Trump is telling us what he intends to do. [He] means to throw people in jail who disagree with him, shut down legitimate press outlets, do what he can to literally undermine the rule of law and our country’s values.” President Biden, whose “Justice” Department and Democrat allies are currently trying to put Trump in prison for up to 700 years and bankrupt him and his family, said that Trump is “saying it out loud.  He embraces political violence.  We can’t let that happen.”  Speaking of political violence, Joe Biden said, “I’d take [Trump] behind the gym and beat the hell out of him.”

In fact, Trump did not use “authoritarian rhetoric”, threaten dictatorship, say he will be a dictator on day One and thereafter, “raise any alarms” that he would be a dictator if elected, admit that he would “only abuse power” on day One, or say “out loud” that he supports political violence and throwing political rivals in prison, etc.  The following argument, in which I assume traditional high school level of competence in the English language and rational argument, not the current Harvard or “legacy media” newsroom or “woke” standards, is quite straightforward.  

First, if one actually wants to win the presidential election in a traditionally democratic country, one does not go on television and assert that one wants to be a dictator if elected.  Rather, one says that one is defending democracy but then, like Joe Biden, ignores Supreme Court rulings that one cannot forgive large amounts of student loans and then hands out a “mind numbing 34 billion” anyway and also has one’s “Justice” Department and “cronies” in the courts try, Soviet Union style, to put one’s main political opponent in prison for 700 years and bankrupt both him and his family.  Any questions?

Second, it makes no logical sense to claim one will be a dictator only for one day because on the day after that, one will, like Muammar Gaddafi, have to beg for mercy as one is beaten to death by an angry mob.  A one-day dictatorship makes no practical sense.

Third, Trump stated exactly what he would do on that first day in office: close the southern border and “drill, drill, drill,” both of which are within his constitutional purview.  This is hardly the stuff of executing one’s political opponents a la Adolf Hitler or, as the Biden “Justice” Department is currently trying to do to Trump, throwing a rival into prison for 700 years.  The dictatorial shoe is actually on the other foot here.  Any questions? 

For these and other reasons it is clear that what Trump was doing in his “Dictator for one day” remark was simply emphasizing how serious he is about those two specified policies.  When Suzie says that she is going to “kill” her sister for borrowing her favourite dress she is not speaking literally.  It is not time to call Homicide. She is simply emphasizing how unhappy she is with her entitled sister.  Similarly, since a one-day dictatorship literally makes no practical sense, when one says on television that one is going to be “dictator only for one day,” one is not literally threatening to be a dictator. One is merely emphasizing how seriously one intends to start closing the border and drilling.  One is, perhaps, also contrasting one’s own promised strong leadership with the pathetic weak “leadership” one is running against.  Any questions?

One might also mention here the related DNC talking point that Trump shows his authoritarian tendency because he praises dictators like Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong Un.  The reason Trump does this is quite simple.  The man who wrote The Art of the Deal wants, eventually, to make a deal with them.  It does not conduce to that end to insult them.  That is, in a concept apparently foreign to the geniuses at the DNC, Trump wants actually to get something positive done.  By contrast, Joe Biden’s stupid gratuitous remark that Putin is “a killer” may, like his bragging how he vanquished the elusive “bad dude Corn Pop,” may play well to his gullible base, but it will not help Biden negotiate with Putin or Kim to end the killing.  Perhaps if the Democrats thought more about making deals and less about grandstanding word-games they could start actually solving problems.  Any questions?

The DNC’s efforts to paint Trump as an authoritarian are designed to distract from its own ACTUAL authoritarian actions (not mere words), ignoring SCOTUS rulings, trying to imprison and bankrupt one’s main political opponent, working with Amazon to ban books one doesn’t like, establishing an “Orwellian Censorship Board” to censor one’s political opponents, and, despite the fact that Joe Biden long pretend to be a Christian to further his political career, working to “shame, silence and demoralize faithful Christians.”

The claim that Trump’s colorful words literally threaten dictatorship is as silly as the claim that Suzie’s remark to her sister about the dress literally threatens murder. One would have thought that this kind of argument about Trump’s “dictator on day One” remark is silly even for the DNC.  Unfortunately, what the DNC’s latest of many similar hoaxes shows is that nothing is too silly for the DNC anymore.

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Richard McDonough

Richard Michael McDonough, American philosophy educator. Achievements include production of original interpretation of Wittgenstein’s logical-metaphysical system, original application Kantian Copernican Revolution to philosophy of language; significant interdisciplinary work logic, linguistics, psychology & philosophy. Member Australasian Debating Federation (honorary life, adjudicator since 1991), Phi Kappa Phi.

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One Comment

  1. McDonough again presents a lucid and honest portrayal of Pres. Trump’s speech and actions. He does not cave to paranoia or purposeful misinformation like the leftist press. It’s refreshing to read an article that does not indulge in anti-Trump propaganda or act as a public relations person for the Trump campaign. Rather, he is lucid and objective depicting Trump neither as a villain nor as an outsize ubermensch.

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