Anyone who has followed politics for any length of time knows the Left has very little sense of humor. The current flap over Trumps “one day dictator” joke on his townhall with Hannity is illustrative.
Trump’s joke plays into the new tactic the Left has been using in recent weeks. They are spinning a narrative that Trump will be authoritarian and try to establish a dictatorship. The psychological term for this is projection
As a general rule, when someone is accusing you of doing something that they’re doing, they are engaging in the psychological defense mechanism of projection. This is the attribution of things to others that are actually attributable to oneself, and is a way of avoiding taking ownership for one’s actions.
In psychological terms, projection often refers to mental phenomena like thoughts and feelings, but can also apply to physical attributes and actions. The person projecting is pushing what they don’t like about themselves (or what they did) onto someone else, as a way of denying this about themselves.
Projection also crosses over closely with other terms like hypocrisy, gas-lighting, blame shifting and denial. When it happens occasionally, it isn’t always a cause for concern, because we are all prone to doing it every now and then, but when it is common within a relationship, it is time to look more closely into the personalities involved.1
Let’s examine what an Authoritarian looks like. Here is President Biden giving his (in)famous “ Red Speech” about MAGA Extremists in Philadelphia on September 1, 2022.2
If you watch the speech (which I recommend you do) you will see the eerie red lighting and authoritarian tone as he condemns most of the Republican party.
Donald Trump did a Town Hall with Sean Hannity on December 5, 2023 and Hannity brought up the question of the media focusing on claims that Trump would abuse power. He starts out saying, “Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody .. But Trump cuts him off at this point to say, “except for day one.” Trump continues, “Meaning I want to close the border and I want to drill, drill, drill. Hannity interrupts to say “that’s not retribution” but Trump responds to Hannity with “we love this guy, he says you're not going to be a dictator are you? I said no, no, no, other than day one. We're closing the border and we're drilling, drilling, drilling. After that I'm not a dictator.”3
If you listen to this segment of the interview, the audience is clapping and laughing at various points. Trump is trolling the Media by joking about being a dictator on day one. We would hope that no one is gullible enough to enough to take it seriously, although it seems that Hannity keeps pressing the “dictator” issue because he doesn’t get the joke like the audience does.4
Here is one take from the Washington Post.5 They view Hannity as a conservative Trump supporter trying to help Trump overcome this notion that he would govern like a dictator. (He’s on Fox. He’s not a conservative Trump supporter.) Hannity asks the question twice, they say, and Trump only answers that he will be a Day 1 Dictator before changing the topic to the border and drilling. But that’s clearly not correct if you read the quote they include:
“I want to close the border and I want to drill, drill, drill,” Trump said in his response. “We love this guy. He says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’ And I said, ‘No, no, no, other than Day 1.’ Day 1, we’re closing the border and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator. (emphasis added)
Trump is clearly not changing the subject but tying closing the border and drilling, on day 1, to being a dictator only on day 1. That view is shared by Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), as quoted in the article:
“He was being funny on the one hand, but also making the point that, ‘I’m going to undo executive orders that [Biden] did, which doesn’t make me any more dictator than he is,’” Cramer said. “The people who have concerns aren’t people who would ever vote for him. This is part of his appeal, is that authenticity, and the point he made in it is really good.”
Senator Lindsey O. Graham (R-SC) added:
“The bottom line is this narrative that ‘You vote for Trump, you vote for a dictator’ is the only thing left because their policies are not working,” Graham said. “They can’t say ‘Vote for Biden.’ It’s impossible to sell the Biden agenda so they’re trying to sell fearmongering against Trump.”
Here is another take from the Washington Post, this time from Amber Phillips, who clearly does not get the joke. She starts her “The 5-minute Fix” newsletter on December 66 with
Donald Trump told Fox’s Sean Hannity that he wouldn’t be a dictator —“except for Day One.” And while he deflected more-direct questions about whether he would abuse his power as president, Trump seems ready and willing to throw aside the norms democracy to get what he wants. (emphasis added)
Lest you think she’s only kidding, she continues with
So I texted constitutional scholar Josh Chafetz at Georgetown Law. I asked him: What could Congress do if Trump were to treat the presidency like a dictatorship?
Seriously. She contacts a law professor to ask about the “one-day dictatorship.” Now try to tell me the Left has any sense of humor. Chafetz is obviously on the left too, because he and Phillips spend two pages talking about all the ways that President Trump could act dictatorial. For example, by having parents at school boards declared domestic terrorists; by putting J6 trespassers in solitary confinement, without charges; by declaring “traditional Catholics” as security threats; and by putting people who repost meme’s criticizing Hillary in prison. Oh, no wait. Biden did all those things, not Trump. Here we are back to the issue of projection.
Phillips and Chafetz are either very humor impaired or are hoping that the audience will actually believe there is a threat of authoritarianism from another Trump Presidency. Trying to make this case has been one of the tactics the left has been trying in recent weeks so, aside from being humorless, they may be making a serious attempt to convince readers that there is reason for concern.
If you read the post they talk about small things like appointing people who can’t get confirmed and allowing them to be acting (a common occurrence if the President and Senate are in different parties), trying to remove some civil service protections and just generally having Executive Departments act contrary to the Constitution (like Biden’s DOJ does). They also include some fear-porn: “If a president were to declare himself totally unconstrained by law, the question is simply about how much he can get his way. That is in large part going to be about how much the military and other force-wielding agencies support him.” That’s right. They suggest that the military could be our only hope!
In a related issue, the New York Times7 and other media outlets have reported on comments made by Trump confidant Kash Patel about going after the conspirators in the government and the media who lied about American citizens. The Trump Campaign, when asked, said that only President Trump or members of the campaign staff could make official policy announcements and that recommendations by external allies are just that - recommendations.
They also reported on a post by the former President on Truth social8
“I say up front, openly, and proudly, that when I WIN the Presidency of the United States, they and others of the LameStream Media will be thoroughly scrutinized for their knowingly dishonest and corrupt coverage of people, things, and events.” He added: “Why should NBC, or any other of the corrupt & dishonest media companies be entitled to use the very valuable Airwaves of the USA, FREE?”
It was widely documented that the coverage of President was dramatically more negative than for any President in history and the Twitter files and Facebook files revealed that the Leftstream media collaborated with the intelligence community to promote the deep state agenda, so it’s not surprising that Trump would want an accounting. That said, in the current era of the Biden Administration and big tech collusion to limit free speech, making these kind of comments as a Presidential candidate may not be very politic and gives the media fodder for their criticisms.
One way that Presidents can and in fact do act unilaterally, without Congress, is by issuing Executive Orders (EO).9 EOs were used sparingly early in US history but much more liberally in the last century. Our last six presidents (George HW Bush through Biden) issued 1442 total EOs. (Biden is till in office so that number will grow.) These six presidents averaged between 35 and 55 EOs per year. (Biden, at 43.5 per year so far, is issuing a normal number of EOs.)
If not negated by legislation passed by Congress or overturned in the courts, EOs function as “the law of the land.” Many are relatively routine orders to implement Executive Branch procedures but EOs are also used sometimes by Presidents to implement legislation that they can’t get passed by Congress. They can also be used to circumvent the Senate by signing “agreements” when the President knows a Treaty won’t be approved by the Senate (as required in the Constitution).10 Presidents often use EOs in their first days in office to issue directives that fulfill campaign promises or to undo the EOs signed by the preceding President implementing his campaign promises. Biden issued numerous EOs to overturn Trump policies in his first days in office and we can expect Trump to do the same in his first few days in office if he is reelected.
The Leftstream media has been after Trump since the famous ride down the elevator in Trump Tower eight years ago and the intelligence community has been in on it since the beginning. Under Biden, the DOJ has been mobilized against domestic terrorists like parents who attend school board meetings, Catholics who choose the Latin mass and MAGA Republicans. The charge of authoritarianism is yet another attempt to discredit Trump. There is a grain of truth in some of these attempts, due to Trump’s often blunt speech, but Trump seems unfazed by it all and seems to enjoy trolling the media. If nothing else, politics is lot more fun when Trump is running.
This definition is taken from the website Psychopaths in Life https://psychopathsinlife.com/projection-when-someone-accuses-you-of-doing-what-theyre-doing/
Photo: https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/09/01/multimedia/01dc-transcript/01dc-transcript-jumbo-v2.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp
Video of speech:
This is from my transcript from listening to the Hannity broadcast starting at 10:35. I found it on YouTube (posted by someone who added their commentary to it).
Steve Bannon on episode 3226 of Warroom, starting at 16:20, ridicules Hannity for not getting the joke Trump is making.
Marianne LeVine, Isaac Arnsdorf and Josh Dawsey https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2023/12/06/trump-comments-dictator-campaign-president-2024/?wpisrc=nl_fix
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/05/us/politics/trump-kash-patel-journalists.html?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20231206&instance_id=109436&nl=%E2%80%A6
I wasn’t able to independently verify this statement. Truth Social is Mr. Trumps primary social media platform and a post from September would be about 800 pages back in history.
Here is a list from Wikipedia, which is a very left leaning organization but I use them on occasion when their reporting on factual historical events lines up with other sources. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_federal_executive_orders
Article II (the Executive branch), Section 2, says of the President that: “He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur.”
Good article Jeff! I love how Trump says things like he did about being a dictator for one day just to stir the pot.
Also I thought what you brought out about projecting things on others that are actually true of you was an excellent observation.