Trump doubled down on praise for leaders whom the Biden administration and other U. S. officials have condemned as dictators. He spoke specifically of Chinese President Xi Jinping, describing him as a “brilliant man” who controls another 1. 4 billion people with an “iron fist. “”. . . Although his praise of Xi attracts press scrutiny, Trump was unfazed and even expanded on his comments. He went further, calling Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin “smart” and “tough. “
Trump is obviously not kidding.
“Orbán is right,” Trump continued. We have to have someone who can protect us. “
When global politics views the Republican as a candidate hostile to democracy, attention focuses in part on his failed tenure in the White House, when he systematically disengaged from legal and constitutional boundaries, culminating in an attempt to reclaim an illegitimate force. after an electoral election. failure.
Of course, there is a similar facet to his 2024 agenda: Trump, a candidate who has spoken of “ending” parts of the US Constitution that hinder his ambitions, has raised the prospect of creating a “transitional US dictatorship. ” .
He also pledges to reject the electoral effects he likes, create militarized encampments, grant pardons to politically aligned criminals, and fire federal officials who are deemed insufficiently unwavering in the face of Trump’s ideological ambitions.
But similarly, Trump sees authoritarians as models worthy of emulation.
Ahead of the 2016 election, the Republican candidate at the time praised Saddam Hussein, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and even China’s handling of the Tiananmen Square massacre. (Seeing photographs of brave Chinese Democrats in front of tanks, Trump sided with whoever deployed the tanks. ) Ahead of the 2024 election, it’s doing it again.
Trump expresses overwhelming admiration for Beijing’s “ruthless” attitude toward the Chinese population. He can hardly express how inspired he is with his benefactor in Moscow. He celebrates Orbán “because he says: ‘This is how it is going to be’, and this is how it is. . . He is the boss. It presents Kim Jong Un as an “absolute leader. “He asks his followers to believe: “It’s smart to have a strong man at the helm of the country. “
This keeps happening for a reason: Trump publicly expresses his admiration for dictators, not despite their authoritarian control, but because of it. As a result of this, the former president continues to increase the bets for the race until 2024.
This article updates our previous similar coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” editor of MaddowBlog, and political contributor to MSNBC. He is also the best-selling author of “The Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics. “
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