Trump “jokingly” suggests to Putin that they “get rid” of journalists
Posted by Annie May / June 29, 2019
When Trump and Putin met at the G20 summit––you know, the one where Trump told journalists it was “none of their business” what he said to Putin––he made a very distasteful joke: that he and Putin should “get rid” of journalists. That joke is just the latest in a long series of comments that make people afraid Trump is a tyrant in the making.
The New York Times published an opinion piece implicitly comparing Trump to Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who abuses populism in order to stay in power. They do so through some clever rearranging of reality. Essentially, a populist like Trump convinces his followers that he truly represents the people. If he loses the election, then the election was rigged against him. If people believe that, then the election’s results don’t matter. He wins either way.
Several other events have lent credence to fears of tyranny. President Donald Trump has invoked his executive privilege in an effort to block the full and unredacted Mueller report from Congress. Additionally, Trump said that he and Putin talked about moving forward into a new era of cooperation. When reporters asked if Trump told Putin not to meddle in the 2020 election, he said they did not discuss that. Finally, Trump retweeted Jerry Falwell’s tweet, which read (in part): “Trump should have 2 yrs added to his 1st term as pay back for time stolen by this corrupt failed coup.”
Nancy Pelosi has also warned that Trump might not want to give up power in 2020; this tweet has fueled that fire.
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