Donald Trump has flitted erratically from one position to another on a variety of political beliefs, but he has hewed with remarkable consistency to one: Dictators are good. Trump has maintained this belief throughout his long public career, and he asserted it once again in a speech in New Hampshire Saturday.

In the address, Trump cited Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, and North Korean hereditary communist monarch Kim Jong-un as authorities on his own superiority. “Viktor Orbán, the highly respected prime minister of Hungary, said Trump is the man who can save the western world,” exclaimed Trump. 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.” As for Kim, “He’s not so fond of this administration, but he’s fond of me.”

Trump is not merely making a Kissingerian argument that these foreign leaders maintained peaceful international relations with him as president. He is citing them specifically as experts on domestic American governance. They know how to run a society, Trump boasts, and they see in Trump a strong leader in the same mold.

  • @HWK_290
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    35 months ago

    Perhaps it’s a new and dubious legal strategy?

    “I’m not Trump, why would I refer to myself in the third person? That Trump guy you want is over there…”

    • @jaybone
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      25 months ago

      He’s gonna pull an Alex Jones and say it was all his character Trump.