Donald Trump has vowed to be a “dictator” if he is re-elected to the White House – but only on “day one” – with the former president also launching a stinging attack against Joe Biden’s cognitive abilities.
Trump made the astonishing comments during a televised town hall event in Iowa with Fox News host Sean Hannity and comes ahead of him skipping his fourth consecutive Democrat presidential debate tonight.
The Democrat frontrunner was twice asked by Mr Hannity to deny that he would abuse power to seek revenge on political rivals if he is re-elected to the White House.
The 77-year-old had previously spoken about targeting his opponents while vowing to seek retribution if he wins a second term.
The Fox News host asked: “Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?” Trump replied: “Except on day one.”
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Hannity pressed the former president as he said: “You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?”
Trump responded: “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 former president was also asked if he had “any plans whatsoever, if re-elected president, to abuse power, to break the law to use the government to go after people.”
He replied with an apparent swipe at the Joe Biden administration: “You mean like they’re using right now?”
Biden’s campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez responded to the comments from the president’s arch-rival, claiming: “Donald Trump has been telling us exactly what he will do if he’s re-elected and tonight he said he will be a dictator on day one. Americans should believe him.”
But during the televised town hall event, Trump still found time to once again launch a stunning attack against the current president’s cognitive state.
At one point, Trump was speaking about nuclear weapons when he said: “Something is going wrong and we can’t afford it because we have a problem today. Nuclear weapons are the single biggest problem the world has.
He continued: “Take Hiroshima or Nagasaki and you look and that was many many decades ago and multiply that times 500. That’s what a big bomb would be today. Whether it’s Israel or major countries.
“Nuclear weapons are the biggest problem we have and we have a man who can’t put two sentences together. We have a man who doesn’t know he’s alive.”
