Trump: I won't be a dictator if I become U.S. president again
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[December 06, 2023]
By Tim Reid
(Reuters) - Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he will not become a
dictator if he becomes U.S. president again except "on day one", after
warnings from Democrats and some Republicans that America was in danger
of becoming an autocracy if he wins the 2024 election.
Republican presidential candidate Trump 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 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 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 this year.
Trump, the frontrunner 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.
As soon as the event finished, Biden's campaign manager, 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 U.S. president between 2017 and 2021, and has refused to
concede that he lost to Biden in the 2020 election.
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Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald
Trump rallies with supporters at a "commit to caucus" event at a
Whiskey bar in Ankeny, Iowa, U.S. December 2, 2023. REUTERS/Carlos
Barria/File photo
Since then Trump has spread false claims that the 2020 election was
stolen from him, a conspiracy that fueled the deadly insurrection by
Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump's
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 U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, will
appear at a televised debate on Wednesday at the University of
Alabama at 7 p.m. CST (0100 GMT).
Trump will skip the event, as he has done for the three previous
Republican debates.
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 U.S. Representative Liz Cheney, a Republican who is an
outspoken critic of Trump and 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.
(Reporting by Tim Reid; editing by Miral Fahmy)
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