Former U.S. president Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he leaves the courtroom during a lunch break in his civil business fraud trial, in New York on Oct. 4.Over the past two weeks, Donald Trump said shoplifters should be immediately shot, suggested the United States’ top general be executed and mocked a political opponent’s husband who was beaten with a hammer.
Author of a book called “Strongmen,” Ben-Ghiat contends that Trump fits well in the category. His recent statements on shooting shoplifters, for example, call to mind strongman leaders he has previously praised such as former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, whose war on drugs featured “extrajudicial killings” of thousands of suspects without a trial, or other countries where military leaders disappear after falling out of favor with the regime.
After Trump mulled bombing drug labs in Mexico, his rivals for the Republican nomination have pushed increasingly aggressive proposals for using the military to attack cartels in the U.S.’ southern neighbor, which would be the sort of unilateral use of force on foreign soil that Trump has railed against.
Trump described the calls as a “treasonous act” for which “in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!” In an interview with “60 Minutes,” Milley said he had taken precautions to protect himself and his family after Trump’s social media post. On the debate stage last week, Trump’s rivals for the GOP nomination didn’t address the former president’s more incendiary rhetoric. They instead focused their relatively infrequent criticism of Trump on his decision to skip the debate, how he added to the national debt while running the country and his comments on abortion.