Trump Says He Won't Become a Dictator Upon Potential Re-Election, Except For on 'Day One'

One night ahead of the Republican primary debate, which former President Donald Trump is once again missing, on December 5, the GOP front-runner took part in a town hall organized by Fox News' Sean Hannity, who questioned Trump about media headlines from the previous weekend that portrayed his second term as possibly tyrannical, per Raw Story.

“They want to call you a dictator,” Hannity asked, referring to headlines from last week. “To be clear, do you in any way have any plans whatsoever, if reelected president, to abuse power, to break the law, to use the government to go after people?” Trump immediately replied, “You mean like they’re using right now,” then changed the subject to the criminal accusations he is facing, per The Hill.

Hannity then asked Trump again, “[U]nder no circumstances. You are promising America tonight. You would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?” Trump then responded, “Except for day one,” before adding, “I want to close the border, and I want to drill, drill, drill.” When Hannity asked if that's retribution, Trump said, “I love this guy, he says, ‘You’re not going to 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.”

Hannity then again questioned him directly on being a dictator, asking, “Do you in any way have any plans whatsoever if reelected president to abuse power, to break the law, to use the government to go after people?” Trump refrained from responding, citing instead his own four indictments and brushing off the 91 criminal allegations against him as 'made-up charges.'

Before a friendly audience that mostly applauded Trump when he took the stage, the former President was asked many questions by only Hannity on a wide range of subjects, such as President Biden's age and health and Trump's own position on foreign policy and energy issues. The event took place just weeks before the Iowa caucuses are set to occur on January 15, 2024; it is the first in the country on the primary calendar and a state where Trump leads his key GOP competitors by double digits, according to recent polls.

Hannity, who recently moderated a debate between Governors Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Gavin Newsom (D-CA), questioned Trump on Biden's recent statement that "If Trump wasn't running, I'm not sure I'd be running." "I think somebody gave him a talking point that would sound good," said Trump. He then proceeded to slam his opponents. "I just found out that Democrats are funding Nikki Haley's campaign. I hear that Democrats are contributing to Ron DeSantis or Ron DeSanctimonious' campaign. And then you hear the talking points. The only thing they are good at is cheating at elections and great talking points. They say we want to run again strong. We did well in 2016 and we did so much better in 2020. The person they don't want to run against is us," he said.