Donald Trump Rally Goers Want Him to Be 'Day One Dictator'

A video has circulated online Saturday showing supporters of former President Donald Trump cheering the idea of him acting like a "dictator" on day one if he's reelected next year.

Trump has come under fire in recent days after comments he made during a town hall event hosted by Fox News host Sean Hannity. During the event, Hannity pressed Trump to pledge that he would never "abuse power as retribution against anybody," as had been suggested in recent reports. In response, Trump suggested that he would only behave in such a way on the first day of his hypothetical second term.

"Except for day one," Trump told Hannity. "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."

The comment comes in the wake of reporting from various outlets, including The New York Times, claiming that the former president and his allies are planning broad applications of presidential power should Trump win the 2024 election, including mass deportations, stocking federal agencies with loyalists, and using force to quash protests against him. These reports, along with the town hall comments, have renewed concerns about Trump's potentially authoritarian aspirations and the dangers of reelecting him.

One group not seemingly put off by the comments is the former president's preexisting supporters. On Saturday, the PatriotTakes account on X, the platform previously known as Twitter, shared a clip from outside a Trump rally in New Hampshire, in which a host asks several gathered supporters, "How many people here support Day One Dictator?" In response, the crowd can be heard cheering with some also raising their hands in support.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's office via email for comment.

Trump is currently the favorite to win the 2024 GOP presidential nomination by a significant margin. Polls of a hypothetical general election match-up with President Joe Biden have mostly had the two candidates neck-and-neck, with some giving an edge to Trump and some to Biden.

In response to this recent trend in Trump's comments, Biden said during a recent speech in Philadelphia that the former president and his likely 2024 opponent was stating his intentions "out loud."

"The other day he said he wants to be a dictator only on one day, wipe out the civil servants and a whole range of other things," the president said. "He embraces political violence instead of rejecting it. We can't let that happen.