Trump defends dictator comments amid NYC soiree fi
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At an event with key figures within the MAGA movement, the former president repeated comments that he wants to be a dictator on “day one.”
By JASON BEEFERMAN
12/10/2023 07:29 AM EST
NEW YORK — The chairman of an Austrian political party founded by ex-Nazis, the conservative Twitter star behind the anti-trans Bud Light backlash and former President Donald Trump all walked into a bar.
Seriously.
On Saturday night in Manhattan, amid butler-delivered bellinis, sequined ball gowns and a five-course French service meal, characters from all corners of the Republican Party’s MAGA faction gathered for “a night of dinner, drinking, and love of country.”
Trump, the New York Young Republican Club’s 111th Annual Gala Keynote speaker, delivered.
“We want to liberate America because we’re in a country that’s in a lot of pain right now, a lot of hurt,” Trump told the crowd, during his 80-minute long speech. “This campaign is on a righteous crusade to rescue our nation from a very corrupt political class.”
On the heels of a reaffirmed gag order, a debate of largely deferential Republican opponents and near slam-dunk poll numbers for the Iowa caucuses just weeks away, Trump made his pledge for a return to the White House.
The former president also addressed his comments earlier this week where he said he would not be a dictator “except for day one” if he returns to office in 2025.
“[Peter] Baker today in the New York Times said that I want to be a dictator,” Trump said, referencing an article from the newspaper’s chief White House correspondent.
“I didn’t say that. I said I want to be a dictator for one day. You know why I wanted to be a dictator? Because I want a wall, and I want to drill, drill, drill,” Trump said, adding that Democrats’ “newest hoax” is to label him a threat to democracy.
The former president was preaching to his base Saturday, as a mix of firebrand conservative media icons, siloed far-right lawmakers and wealthy MAGA-loving donors chanted his name and cheered pro-Trump speeches from carefully-plated banquet tables.