Donald Trump Supporter Expresses Enthusiasm About His ‘Dictator’ Comments, Says 'I Love It'

Donald Trump's supporter base seems to be unfazed by his dictatorial comments, with many ignoring or taking it as a joke, and some appreciating his dictatorial plans.

One such voter from Iowa, who is in her 50s, says she feels like the dictator comment is not a bad thing. “I love it,” she said to Washington Post. “My kids call me a dictator, I thought my parents were dictators … He said he was only going to do it for a day. Like if you had a home that was in disrepair and your parents came in and they were firm and they wanted to get it done, and when you got done you had this beautiful home, how could you be mad?” 

Although some Trump fans who were questioned by the Post did not share the same enthusiasm for a Trump dictatorship, others attempted to rationalize his remarks about being in charge for a day by contrasting him with Joe Biden or downplaying how serious Trump's comments were, Raw Story reported.

“I don’t think he meant what everybody is saying, being a dictatorship — and actually, you know right now under Biden, that’s probably what we got because he does what he wants to do and he’s not listening to the voters,” said Iowa Trump supporter Leann Reed. “I think we need somebody that’s going to move forward fast to clean up everything, and I think that’s what he meant.”

In response to a New York Times piece concerning his earlier "dictator" comment, Trump went further in a speech at the New York Young Republican Club on December 9. “I said I want to be a dictator for one day,” Trump elaborated in New York. “And you know why I wanted to be a dictator for one day? Because I want a wall, right? I want a wall and I want to drill, drill, drill.”

Professor of sociology at Princeton University and an expert on Hungary's transition to authoritarianism under Viktor Orban, Kim Lane Scheppele, speculates that the repetition may be an effort to make people less wary of criticism of Trump as a potential tyrant or a danger to democracy.

“If you repeat something often enough, it gets normalized,” she said. “Trump has done this repeatedly where he tells you exactly what he’s going to do, but then he’ll say, ‘just kidding,’ or, ‘look at their reaction,’ and he turns an outrageous statement into something everybody learns to live with, and then discount.”

The joke isn't necessarily just a joke, Scheppele says. “He’s desensitizing everybody to the effect of what it would look like if he followed through on this, which I think he is intent on doing. He’s turning it into a joke, which doesn’t mean he’s joking,” Scheppele explained.