Supporters of Donald Trump are convinced that a conspiracy is underway given that recent media coverage of the former president has centered around concerns regarding dictatorial behavior.
Trump’s son, Eric, suggested on Wednesday that major media outlets were collaborating in secret to keep the GOP front-runner from serving a second term.
“It is all so obvious and coordinated…” Trump wrote.
Eric’s remark was in response to an article from the conservative outlet Washington Examiner, which detailed four recent examples in which Trump was labeled as a potential dictator.
An opinion piece last Thursday from the Washington Post, for example, was titled, “A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending.”
And although former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney is not a part of the media, her comment on Sunday in which she said that the U.S. is “sleepwalking into dictatorship” was also cited.
Other examples include articles from the New York Times and the Atlantic that argue that a second Trump term could be “radical” and dangerous to the country.
In response to Eric’s post, countless Trump supporters agreed that the media must be secretly colluding with either Biden, the intelligence community, or all of the above.
“If this isn’t corporate media terrorism against Trump, then tell me what it is!” one user wrote.
While much of the corporate media’s opposition to Trump is apparent, the notion of a coordinated effort against him among hundreds of newsrooms is far-fetched.
Although Trump’s vast lead in the polls could be stirring concern among journalists opposed to the former president, the Republican’s supporters are ignoring one thing: His repeated flirtation with dictatorial talk.
In September, Trump suggested that Mark Milley, the nation’s top military general, should be executed. Earlier this week, the former president even called for the termination of the Constitution while discussing the debunked claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
The examples are endless.
Of course, in the mind of his supporters, Trump’s remarks are either merely tongue-in-cheek or deserved. Trump’s fans have never shied away from demanding that all the former president’s foes be punished for treason.
Yet even when given the chance to refute such worries, Trump continues to lean into the same remarks. During a town hall with Fox News’ Sean Hannity this week, Trump was asked if he would refrain from taking retributive action against his enemies in D.C. if he were elected.
Trump responded by stating that he would only be a dictator on the first day of his presidency. While the remark was seemingly made in jest, such comments, especially in light of his past threats, aren’t doing him any favors.
If Team Trump wants the media to stop referring to him as a dictator, he might want to step away from the keyboard and cease the authoritarian rants he regularly makes on Truth Social.
