When Donald Trump acknowledged in a Fox News town hall on Tuesday his intent not to abuse power as retribution against anybody, “except for Day One,” he was doubling down on a tried and true strategy of 20th-century dictators. As NYU professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of “Strongmen,” wrote years ago about Trump’s wild statements, he is “introducing an idea that is reprehensible to the values of liberal democracy, framing it as an off-the-cuff remark or even as a joke.” Meanwhile, she notes, “it cannot be unheard.”
We’ve seen Trump retreat plenty of times when he got pushback for saying the quiet part out loud. Recall early in the Covid crisis when he said there should be less testing so public health officials reported fewer cases in an election year. When a public chorus of boos erupted, he said he was just joking.
