Donald Trump managed to break new rhetorical ground this week, declaring at a Fox News town hall event in Iowa that he would not be a dictator if he returned to the White House — “except for Day One.” Offered an opportunity to explain himself, the former president suggested that he’d use dictatorial powers to “close the border” and approve increased oil drilling. When Sean Hannity tried to help his guest, the GOP frontrunner doubled down. “I love this guy,” Trump added, referring to the host. “He says, ‘You’re not...

Republicans in Congress and across the country — including on the GOP debate stage — are facing a new litmus test: Should former President Trump's remarks that he will be a "dictator" only on "Day 1" be taken seriously? Why it matters: This isn't 2016. Trump is well aware that the softball question lobbed last night by Fox News' Sean Hannity — "Do you in any way have any plans whatsoever, if re-elected president, to abuse power?" — is rife with alarming context. Zoom in: Trump is facing 91 criminal...

Donald Trump and his allies have made little secret of their plans for a potential second term. They’d stock his administration with sycophants. They’d expand on the extreme anti-immigration agenda of his first for years. And they’d try to use the power of the federal government, and even the United States military, to “root out” the “vermin within the confines of our country.” But have no fear: According to the former president, that authoritarianism wouldn’t last his entire second term. No, he’d rule with an iron fist only on the...

At a Fox town hall in Iowa, he avoided answering whether he would "abuse power." Donald Trump is raising new alarms about what he would do if he makes it back to the White House, even referring to himself in an interview Tuesday night as a "dictator," but only, he said, on "Day One." At a town hall in Iowa with Fox News host Sean Hannity, the former president declined to rule out abusing power when asked repeatedly whether would do so during a second term. "I want to be...

Trumps says of a potential second-term that he would not be a dictator “except for day one” - what he would do in his first 24-hours of presidential power. That, as a former Trump official is openly saying in interviews: We’ll come after government and media “conspirators”. Plus, Biden tells a room full of donors “I’m not sure I’d be running” if Trump wasn’t. And, a Senate meeting on Ukraine aid turns into a shouting match about border funding. Also this morning: federal prosecutors are to use Trump’s embrace of...

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would only be a “dictator” on “day one” if he is elected back to the White House. Fox News host Sean Hannity during a town hall cited media coverage of Trump’s increasingly authoritarian plans for a potential second term. “Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?” Hannity asked. “Except for day one,” Trump replied. “I want to close the border and I want to drill, drill, drill,” he added. “That’s not...

When Donald Trump sits down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, there’s no great mystery about the larger political context. The host is a close, longtime ally to the former president, so everyone watching understands that the Q&A will not be a contentious grilling. These appearances are interviews only in a superficial sense: Viewers end up watching two friends chat. In fact, on several occasions, Hannity has tried to use these programs to help steer Trump in specific directions, with the goal of helping the Republican. It happened again on Tuesday...