Sunday, September 03, 2023

Here's how Trump's comments show he is planning a 'dictatorship': Historian


Matthew Chapman
September 1, 2023

On Friday, presidential historian Michael Beschloss analyzed Trump's recent speeches in which he valorized his own criminal indictments, and warned MSNBC's Ali Velshi that he is planning a "dictatorship" if he manages to get into power again.

"In 2016, I declared, I am your voice," said Trump in one clip. "Today, I add that I am your warrior, I am your justice, and for those who have been wronged and been betrayed, I am your retribution. In the end, they're not coming after me, they're coming after you, and I am just standing in their way. Here I am, standing in their way." In a second clip he said, "Every time the radical left Democrats, Marxists, communists, fascists indict me, I consider it a great, great, great badge of honor ... because I am being indicted for you."

"Using the example you and i just talked about, if you and I ever get indicted for anything, I am not sure I can get away with that," said Velshi with a bitter laugh. "I am getting indicted for you. Who are these people that are cheering for him? I didn't do anything, I did not commit a foul crime."

"A duet to the music of totally devoted to, you know, proudly indicted. I'm still not sure that will earn us very much money," said Beschloss. "But this is as serious as it can possibly get because, look what's at stake November of next year. Donald Trump has told us if he becomes president again, he wants a presidential dictatorship without much regard to Congress, without much regard to the courts, without people in the executive branch who are ever going to say no, and also, locking a lot of people up."

This sort of agenda, Beschloss warned, is "much more the language of Mussolini and other fascists and dictators throughout history, than anything else we have seen in the American story."

"All I am saying is, anyone who does not understand what this means — a year from November, we could have lockups, we could have fascists, we could have a dictator," added Beschloss. "That is what all this really means, and what happens between now and then, largely as a result of how people react today trials, is going to determine the fate."

Watch the video below or at the link here.


 


Trump considered sending political foes to Gitmo -- here's why he didn't: Ex-Trump official

David McAfee
September 2, 2023

Donald Trump actually once considered sending his political enemies to Guantanamo Bay, but didn't in part because it would be too expensive, according to a former Trump administration official.

Ex-DHS official Miles Taylor, known for secretly voicing his Trump criticisms while employed within the administration, appeared on MSNBC's Alex Witt Reports on Saturday and was discussing Trump's purported tendency to weaponize the justice system against his "adversaries."

"A number of folks who worked in the Trump Administration with me and have since spoken out against the ex president, we joke darkly about the fact that in the second term, a number of us will be in orange jumpsuits in Guantanamo Bay," Taylor said, adding that the joke isn't entirely outside of the realm of reality.

"I say that the comment is half facetious, because Donald Trump actually did have a vision, while I was in the administration, to go use the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay to house political prisoners," he said. "In that case what he wanted to do is use it to move people from the southern border to send a message and put them in the same place where people like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, sits behind bars, and send a message."

He noted that "the only reason Donald Trump didn't start sending people to Gitmo" is because "he was convinced it would be too expensive, and the facility couldn't house the number of people he wanted to send there. That was the mindset of the man when he was president of the United States.

Watch below or click the link here.

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