Former president and current GOP frontrunner Donald Trump gleefully reminded the audience that he’d become a ”dictator” for the first day of a second presidential term in a rambling keynote at the New York Young Republicans Club (NYYRC) annual gala at the ritzy Cipriani restaurant on Wall Street.
During his 80-minute speech to a crowd of 1,000 MAGA donors, politicians, and influencers on Saturday, Trump brought up viral comments he made last Tuesday in a town hall with Fox News host Sean Hannity, who asked the former president whether he would commit to not abusing his presidential power to retaliate against political enemies if re-elected in 2024.
Trump replied that he would only be a dictator on “day one.” “We’re closing the border. And we’re drilling, drilling, drilling,” he said. “After that, I’m not a dictator.”
The GOP frontrunner returned to the line Saturday. “[Peter] Baker today in The New York Times said that I want to be a dictator,” Trump complained, referencing an article covering how Trump and his allies are “leaning into” the charge that they plan on assuming dictatorial powers if re-elected. “I didn’t say that. I said I want to be a dictator for one day.”
In recent years, the NYYRC winter soiree has become something of a gathering point for the American far-right conservatives. At last year’s installment, NYYRC president Gavin Wax declared “total war” on the right’s political enemies, vowing to “do battle in every arena. In the media. In the courtroom. At the ballot box. And in the streets.”
The club’s president reprised those remarks Saturday night. “Since I know the deep state is listening tonight, once President Trump is back in office, we won’t be playing nice anymore,” Wax said. “It will be a time for retribution. All those responsible for destroying our once-great country will be held to account after baseless years of investigations, and government lies and media lies against this man,” he said, vowing “to turn the tables on these actual crooks and lock them up for a change.”
Trump greeted Wax’s speech warmly, twice calling it an “excellent speech.”
In his first-ever appearance at the 111-year-old annual event, the former president claimed that Democrats’ “newest hoax” is to call him a threat to democracy. “This is their new line. Here we go again — ‘Russia, Russia, Russia,’ ‘Mueller, Mueller, Mueller,’ ‘Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine.’ One hoax after another,” Trump added.
Trump also delivered a message to President Joe Biden, who greeted his original “day one” comment by joking, “Thank God, only one day.” “I can only say to Joe: Be very careful what you wish for, but [what] you have done is a terrible thing.”
