CNN presidential historian Timothy Naftali suggested President Trump succeeded in being a “dictator on day one” of his presidency, based on his actions on Inauguration Day.
Naftali reacted to the news the president would sign more than 200 executive orders on his first day, a record-breaking number.
“He has decided to make good on his promise to be a dictator on day one,” Naftali said, referencing a comment Trump made during a 2023 town hall with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
Trump quipped then that he wouldn’t be a dictator, “Except for day one. We’re closing the border and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.”
CNN historian Timothy Naftali commented on President Trump’s rhetoric after his inauguration Monday. (CNN screenshot)
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Naftali added how Trump invited several international leaders, such as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Argentine President Javier Milei, who Naftali criticized as “far-right” leaders.
He went on to attack Trump’s past calls to acquire Greenland and regain control over the Panama Canal, suggesting this is capitulating to the “far-right.”
“In a sense, we had the far-right international represented at the inauguration,” Naftali said. “And the President of the United States, for the first time since 1901, in an inaugural address, talked about how this country is going to acquire new territory and threatened the sovereignty of another country.
“That is a signal to the far-right in the world that America is now going to play the game the way the other far-right countries play, which is, ‘What we want, we take.’”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Argentina’s President Javier Milei share a joke as they arrive for the Presidential Inauguration of Donald Trump at the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S. January 20, 2025. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)
He continued, “Which means, for the first time since World War II, we are no longer an indispensable nation. If we follow through with the rhetoric in the inauguration, we have become an imperialist nation.”
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Trump promised in his inaugural address that U.S. “sovereignty will be reclaimed, our safety will be restored. The scales of justice will be rebalanced. The vicious, violent and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end. And our top priority will be to create a nation that is proud, prosperous and free.”
Trump had proposed acquiring Greenland ahead of his inauguration. (Evan Vucci/AP)
Naftali added, “The kind of rhetoric the president used in his inaugural speech is the kind of rhetoric one associates with imperial great power.”
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