{"id":109367,"date":"2025-08-25T17:43:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T17:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/109367\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T17:43:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T17:43:12","slug":"trump-says-a-lot-of-americans-want-a-dictator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/109367\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Says ‘A Lot’ of Americans Want a Dictator"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDonald Trump<\/a> has been ruling like an authoritarian since retaking office in January, repeatedly thumbing his nose at Congress, the Constitution, and any other check on presidential power. On Monday, Trump appeared to tease the notion of the United States becoming a full-fledged dictatorship while signing executive orders in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n

\n\tTrump was answering questions about his administration\u2019s military takeover of Washington, D.C.<\/a>, which he has said<\/a> he will likely expand to other cities, including Chicago. \u201cAs you know, Chicago is a killing field right now, and they don\u2019t acknowledge it,\u201d the president said, referring to Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and other Democrats who don\u2019t want Trump to send troops into the city. \u201cThey say, \u2018We don\u2019t need him! Freedom! Freedom! He\u2019s a dictator! He\u2019s a dictator!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cA lot of people are saying maybe we\u2019d like a dictator,\u201d Trump then asserted, before claiming he doesn\u2019t want a dictatorship. \u201cI\u2019m not a dictator,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m a man with common sense and a smart person.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTrump, of course, said several times<\/a> during the 2024 campaign<\/a> that he wanted to be a dictator \u2014 adding, each time, he only meant on the first day of his administration. While he may have denied Monday that he wants to be a dictator, the president of the United States even suggesting that Americans want to do away with democracy and be ruled by one is chilling.<\/p>\n

\n\tTrump has so far shown zero regard<\/a> for Congress as a co-equal branch of government, and his administration similarly has operated<\/a> as if it is not subject to rulings from the federal judiciary. The president has signed myriad unconstitutional executive orders \u2014 including one last week seeking to dictate<\/a> how states manage their elections, despite the president having no role in federal elections, and another order Monday morning penalizing anyone who burns the flag with a year of jail time, which is a blatant affront to the First Amendment and directly contradicts Supreme Court precedent.<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tIt shouldn\u2019t be surprising considering the praise Trump has long lavished on autocratic rulers around the world \u2014 from Russian President Vladimir Putin to Kim Jong-un of North Korea, or what some of his own former administration officials have said about him. John Kelly, who served as both secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and White House chief of staff during Trump\u2019s first term, said<\/a> ahead of the 2024 election that Trump \u201ccertainly prefers the dictator approach to government.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWell, looking at the definition of fascism: It\u2019s a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy,\u201d Kelly told<\/a> The New York Times, when asked if Trump is a fascist. \u201cSo certainly, in my experience, those are the kinds of things that he thinks would work better in terms of running America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s hard to argue with Kelly\u2019s description of how Trump likes to rule given the first several months of his second administration. The forcible suppression of opposition and militarism have been in particularly sharp focus lately. The FBI on Friday targeted John Bolton<\/a>, a former Trump adviser who lately has been criticizing the president, while the Justice Department has launched probes into New York Attorney General Letitia James and Democratic Senator Adam Schiff, both fierce Trump critics who have worked to hold him to account for his corruption. Trump has said<\/a> former President Barack Obama should also be subject to investigation.<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tTrump said on Monday that the military is ready to be deployed to Chicago and other liberal strongholds where the president wants to impose his will. When asked whether he would send troops into cities even if governors don\u2019t request such a deployment, Trump responded, \u201cI am.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTrump was also asked if the Pentagon is prepared to send troops into Chicago. \u201cWe\u2019re ready to go anywhere,\u201d the president replied.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump has been ruling like an authoritarian since retaking office in January, repeatedly thumbing his nose at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,12,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-109367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-united-states-of-america","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}