In “What Do You Think of Thomas Jefferson? (Trump Asked),” the Fine People on Both Sides calumny against Donald Trump was covered here. Now, let us fact-check two other infamous Trump sayings.
Dictator on Day One
Repeatedly we hear former president and current presidential candidate Donald John Trump accused of declaring he would be “a dictator on Day One,” and that, therefore, we cannot trust him to respect the Constitution.
Sure. He said it. No doubt. But the original statement was a bit of jesting with Sean Hannity:
Hannity had asked if he would ever use power as retribution against anyone, and Trump responded orthogonally, saying “except for Day One,” then clarifying: he’d close the border and “drill, drill, drill.”
He was answering a different question. This is quite clear. You have to be somewhat illiterate not to understand what Trump was doing here. So can we assume that they really object to is his border policy and petroleum production stance?
Bloodbath!
Trump is charged with threatening a bloodbath if he is not elected. And he did say the word. But the context was also closer to anodyne. He predicted a bloodbath if tariffs in automobiles from Mexico were not raised “100 percent,” which he promised to do:
Now, the ultra-protectionist policy Trump lays out here may be close to insane. But it’s not threatening-riots- or threatening-insurrection-insane. That is just a fantasy. Of his opponents.
It is worth remembering, also, that there is a difference between a prophecy (or prediction) and a threat (or dire promise).