CNN Presidential Historian Claims Trump Fulfilled ‘Promise to Be Dictator on Day One’ With Executive Orders
CNN’s presidential historian Timothy Naftali suggested that President Trump managed to be a “dictator on day one” of his presidency, based on his actions on Inauguration Day.
Naftali reacted to the news that the president would sign more than 200 executive orders on its first day, which is a record number.
“He decided to fulfill his promise to be a dictator on day one,” Naftali said, referring to a comment Trump made during 2023. town hall with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
Trump then quipped that he would not be a dictator, “Except for the first day. We close the border and drill, drill, drill. After that, I’m not a dictator.”
CNN historian Timothy Naftali commented on President Trump’s rhetoric following his inauguration on Monday. (CNN screenshot)
Naftali added that Trump had invited several international leaders, such as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Argentine President Javier Miley, whom Naftali criticized as leaders of the “extreme right”.
He then attacked Trump’s past calls conquer Greenland and take back control of the Panama Canal, suggesting this is a capitulation to the “far right”.
“In a sense, we had a far-right international community represented at the inauguration,” Naftali said. “And for the first time since 1901, the president of the USA spoke in his inaugural speech about how this country will get a new territory and threatened the sovereignty of another country.
“It’s a signal to the far right in the world that America is now going to play the game the way other far right countries play, which is ‘We take what we want.'”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Argentine President Javier Milei joke as they arrive for the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the US Capitol in Washington, US on January 20, 2025. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)
He continued: “Which means that for the first time since World War II, we are no longer an indispensable nation. If we continue with the rhetoric of the inauguration, we have become an imperialist nation.”
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Trump promised in his inaugural address that America’s “sovereignty will be restored, our security will be restored. The scales of justice will be rebalanced. The vicious, violent, and dishonest arming of the Justice Department and our government will cease. And our top priority will be to create a nation that proud, advanced and free.”
Trump proposed taking over Greenland before his inauguration. (Evan Vucci/AP)
Naftali added: “The kind of rhetoric that the president used in his inaugural speech is the kind of rhetoric that is associated with an imperial great power.”
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