One year of Trump’s praise for authoritarians

Donald Trump’s affinity for authoritarian figures is well established. When he was in the White House, he boasted of his relationships with people like North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But Trump’s latest praise for some of the world’s biggest strongmen and his comment that he wouldn’t be a dictator “except for Day One” has alarmed Trump’s critics, who say they fear the former president would veer even further to the right if re-elected. They point to Trump calling his political enemies “vermin,” a dehumanizing word that echoes fascist dictators such as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, and second-term plans being drafted by Trump allies they claim would upend the norms of government.

On Saturday night in New Hampshire, Trump repeated a phrase about undocumented immigrants — that they are “poisoning the blood of our country” — that echoes racist manifestos and prompted President Joe Biden’s campaign to release a statement saying Trump “parroted Adolf Hitler.”

“Donald Trump channeled his role models as he parroted Adolf Hitler, praised Kim Jong Un, and quoted Vladimir Putin while running for president on a promise to rule as a dictator and threaten American democracy,” Biden campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement. “Trump is not shying away from his plan to lock up millions of people into detention camps and continues to lie about that time when Joe Biden obliterated him by over 7 million votes three years ago.”

Trump and his supporters have downplayed his flattering words for authoritarian figures and his talk of using executive powers to enact border policies that critics call draconian, saying that Trump is trying to exude strength and that the outrage is nothing more than a “hoax” and left-wing alarmism. Trump said his comments were taken out of context and some of Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill said Trump was just “joking.”

It's a dynamic that has played out since Trump's time in the White House. He heaps praise on leaders who have been complimentary of him and he has gotten along with in the past, or who he sees as strong figures on the world stage — regardless of their democratic or human rights records.

Make America Great Again, Inc., the super PAC supporting Trump, said in a press email that it was Biden who was the “real dictator. “While the White House and their puppets in the media project themselves onto President Trump, the truth is that the real dictator is already in the White House,” the email read, claiming Biden has abused power.

Here are seven times that Trump has spoken favorably of strongmen — or the idea of dictatorship itself — this year:

Interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox, April 11: Xi is a “brilliant man” with “the look, the brain, the whole thing”; and Putin is “very smart”

Trump heaped praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin during a winding interview with Tucker Carlson (then still of Fox) at his Mar-a-Lago home.

“How smart is [Xi]? Could you tell?” Carlson asked.

“Top of the line,” Trump replied. “President Xi is a brilliant man. If you went all over Hollywood to look for somebody to play the role of President Xi, you couldn’t find [them], there’s nobody like that: the look, the brain, the whole thing,” he added.

Later on, Trump also gave Putin a shoutout, saying the Russian leader is “very smart” — though, Trump acknowledged, he had been having a “bad year.”

Truth Social, May 28: Erdoğan lifted Turkey to “a new level of prominence and respect!”

Following Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s reelection in May, Trump took to Truth Social to celebrate his victory.

“Congratulations to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his big and well deserved victory in Turkey,” Trump wrote. “I know him well, he is a friend, and have learned firsthand how much he loves his Country and the great people of Turkey, which he has lifted to a new level of prominence and respect!”

New Hampshire campaign rally, Oct. 23: Viktor Orban is “one of the strongest leaders anywhere in the world” Trump says, mistakenly calling him leader of Turkey 

In October, Trump lauded Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has described his own governing style as an “illiberal democracy.”

“There’s a man, Viktor Orbán, did anyone ever hear of him?” Trump said. “He’s probably, like, one of the strongest leaders anywhere in the world,” before misidentifying him as the “the leader of Turkey.”

Trump has stayed in touch with Orban since leaving the White House, and hosted him at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey last summer before the Hungarian president gave a speech at CPAC in Dallas.

Veterans Day address, Nov. 11:  Xi is out of “central casting” and Kim Jong Un is “tough” and “smart”

At an event in New Hampshire in November, Trump pulled out one of his go-to compliments for President Xi.

“President Xi is like central casting,” he said. “There’s nobody in Hollywood that could play the role of President Xi — the look, the strength, the voice.”

Trump also outed his coziness with Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un.

“It’s good to have a good relationship with Putin and Xi and all these people they have lots of nuclear weapons,” Trump said. “And Kim Jong Un I have a good relationship with. He’s a tough, smart guy.”

Around the same time, Trump took aim at his domestic opponents and detractors, calling those who oppose him “vermin” and suggesting the threat from within is greater than that posed by countries like Russia, China and North Korea.

Iowa campaign rally, Nov. 18: Xi is  “smart” and “fierce” and “strong like granite”

The former president told supporters at a rally in Fort Dodge, Iowa, on Nov. 18 that Xi is both “fierce” and “very smart” and “strong like granite” — unlike Biden, who Trump slammed as “weak” and “very stupid.”

“Now, the press doesn’t like it when I say good things about [Xi],” Trump said. “What can I say? He runs 1.4 billion people with an iron hand.”

At the same event, he boasted about a conversation he once had with Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar, during which Baradar referred to him as “your excellency.”

Fox News interview, Dec. 5: Trump himself wants to be a dictator only on “day one”

Amid the praise for authoritarian leaders outside the U.S., Trump said he himself would serve as a dictator — only on day one of his second term.

“Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?” Fox host Sean Hannity asked Trump in an interview taped in Davenport, Iowa.

“Except for day one,” Trump responded. “I want to close the border and I want to drill, drill, drill.”

Trump doubled down on the idea in the town hall and at an event days later, before walking it back on social media, saying it in a “joking manner.” He followed by saying “but only for a day, because I’m going to close the Border, and DRILL, DRILL, DRILL,” a much different attitude and meaning!”

New Hampshire rally, Dec. 16: Trump quotes Putin and praises Kim and Orban

Trump borrowed a phrase from Putin in an attempt to paint Biden as an authoritarian ruler during a rally in Durham, New Hampshire.

“Even Vladimir Putin … says that Biden’s, and this is a quote, politically motivated persecution of his political rival is very good for Russia because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy,” the former president told rally-goers.

Orban and Kim also got shoutouts: Orban for being the “highly respected prime minister of Hungary” and Kim for being “very nice.”