Over the weekend, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump cryptically told a crowd of his followers that they wouldn’t have to vote again if he is elected president later this year.
Trump’s statement only compounds concerns about his plans to curtail democratic rights should he return to the White House, political commentators and historians have noted.
In his comments at a rally in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump claimed he was a Christian — likely an attempt to pander to the Christian nationalism that has taken hold of his far right base.
“Christians, get out and vote! Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore,” Trump said during his Friday night speech.
Seconds later, he said that things will “be fine” if he’s elected, adding “you won’t have to vote anymore.”
Trump reiterated the claim for good measure.
“You gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again,” he said.
Commentators noted that Trump’s statement serves as further evidence of his authoritarianism — along with his vow to be a temporary dictator if he’s elected and his demand in 2022 for the “termination” of the Constitution to unlawfully reinstate him as president.
“Candidly, I don’t completely understand what he means. I don’t want to have to worry about what he means. It’s yet another reason why we’ve got to make sure he doesn’t get reelected,” said Pete Buttigieg, who is currently the secretary of transportation in the Biden administration and an option to be Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’s vice presidential nominee.
“HE IS ANNOUNCING THAT HE WILL BE A DICTATOR,” wrote Yale history professor Joanne Freeman on the social media website X. “Please don’t look away. This is real. This is here.”
“I have studied dictatorship for decades and this is it. … Trump will never leave office if he wins in November,” said NYU history professor and expert on authoritarianism Ruth Ben-Ghiat.
Some Republicans tried to defend Trump’s comments, claiming they were not meant to be taken seriously.
“I think that was a classic Trumpism, if you will. … Obviously, we want everybody to vote in all elections, but I think he was just trying to make a hyperbolic point that it can be fixed as long as he gets back in office,” New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) told ABC News. “Classic Trump right there.”
The Harris campaign denounced Trump’s words, noting that he has displayed a pattern of anti-democratic beliefs and actions.
“Our democracy is under assault” by Trump, a statement from the campaign for the Democratic candidate for president said, citing, among other items, Trump’s refusal to accept his election loss on January 6, 2021.
“This campaign, [Trump] has promised violence if he loses, the end of our elections if he wins, and the termination of the Constitution to empower him to be a dictator to enact his dangerous Project 2025 agenda on America,” the statement went on, adding that Trump “wants to take America backward, to a politics of hate, chaos and fear.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We’re presently working to find 1500 new monthly donors to Truthout before the end of the year.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy