Former President Donald Trump refuted recent accusations that he is copying Adolf Hitler in his remarks, and is planning on becoming a dictator if he is reelected, in a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt on Friday.
Hewitt asked Trump a series of questions about whether he intended to be a dictator, his comments regarding illegal immigrants “poisoning” American blood and copying Hitler in the interview. Trump disputed the interpretations of his statements, asserting he will be democratic, is not a racist and has very limited knowledge of Hitler. (RELATED: ‘Dictatorial Tendencies’: Hillary Clinton Compares Trump To Hitler On ‘The View’)
From this AM’s interview with former President Trump (https://t.co/yYWE6tUUgx): pic.twitter.com/XETeE3OUtd
— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) December 22, 2023
“Now President Trump, you have been accused by all sorts of people in the Beltway of planning on being a tyrant and a dictator. I saw you on with our friend, Sean [Hannity], and you made a joke. I thought it was a joke that you wanted to be a dictator for a day. … So I want to put it to you bluntly. If you are reelected, will you peacefully surrender power at the end of your second term as required by the Constitution?” Hewitt asked.
“Of course,” Trump answered.
Trump’s comment that illegal immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” recently drew widespread coverage after a campaign rally in New Hampshire, though Axios reports that Trump has used the phrase repeatedly. Hewitt asked the former president what he means when he says this.
“When you look at it, and you look at what’s coming in, we have, from all over the world, not one group, they’re coming in from Asia, from Africa, from South America. They’re coming from all over the world. They’re coming from prisons. They’re coming from mental institutions and insane asylums. They’re terrorists. Absolutely, that’s poisoning our country. That’s poisoning the blood of our country,” Trump responded. “And that’s what’s happening … this is equal opportunity … we have no idea who they are, where they are. They have people coming in, we don’t even know what the language is that they speak. We have nobody that speaks the language. … We’re loading up our classes, our school classes, with children that don’t speak the language. They don’t speak our language, and nobody knows what’s going on.”
The White House, Biden campaign and others have accused Trump of copying Hitler by invoking this language.
“Now Mr. President, your critics say that you are using Hitlerian language that was used to dehumanize Jews by saying that Jewish blood cannot be part of German blood,” Hewitt stated. “Do you have anything like that in mind when you say poisoning our blood?”
“No, and I never knew that Hitler said it, either, by the way,” Trump answered. “And I never read Mein Kampf. They said I read Mein Kampf. These are people that are disinformation horrible people that we’re dealing with.”
Hewitt asked Trump if he is using the comments in a racist way but the former president responded that he is not and touted his poll numbers with minority groups and his record as president on issues impacting them.
“So you mean nothing racist by that, because your critics keep saying oh, he wants to be Hitler. He’s talking about poisoning our blood. He’s trying to be a Nazi. How do you respond to these people?” Hewitt asked.
“First of all, I know nothing about Hitler,” Trump asserted. “I’m not a student of Hitler. I never read his works. They say that he said something about blood. He didn’t say it the way I said it, either, by the way. It’s a very different kind of a statement. What I’m saying when I talk about people coming into our country is they are destroying our country.”
Toward the end of the interview, Hewitt asked Trump point-blank if he plans to rule over the United States as a tyrant.
“No jokes at all. Do you intend to rule as an authoritarian or a dictator?” Hewitt queried.
“Not at all,” Trump said. “No, I’m going to rule as somebody that’s very popular with the people. And the reason I have a 50-point or 60-point lead, I saw one today I have a 60-point lead, but the reason is because I had four great years. We had four great years. We had the greatest economy in history. I rebuilt, think of it, I rebuilt the military. I defeated ISIS.”
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