At a new Trump rally in Michigan, former President Donald Trump showered praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping, calling him a “brilliant man.” It mirrors other past rhetoric from the ex-president on authoritarians elsewhere in the world. Though Trump, at times, distances himself morally from the substance of what such figures are doing, he expresses relatively consistent admiration for their supposed aptitude at the job.
“Adulation of a communist dictator’s “iron fist” is disqualifying for a candidate for president of the United States. Look at what Xi did to Hong Kong’s democracy,” argued Utah political candidate Alan Wessman on X, the site formerly called Twitter.
“Trump just spent an hour telling us why we should want a Dictator who is above all laws. Speaks to the Iron Fist that once Americans used to describe Hitler and Stalin. Yes, become great America by becoming WW2 Germany and the USSR. Really? Patriots?” added platform user Larry Rosenthal.
“Trump is conditioning people to *want* a dictator,” added Ian Bassin, a former White House lawyer and founder of the nonprofit advocacy group Protect Democracy.
Trump’s Michigan speech came not long after the conclusion of this year’s Republican National Convention (RNC), where he got the party’s already expected nomination for the year and in conjunction with which he announced his running mate for the year: Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), whose political career begins and ends with his current Senate term.
Vance got a lot of criticism in the days before Trump made that announcement for rushing to blame supposed incitement from the Biden campaign for a shooting that took place at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania. Vance cast that blame before law enforcement even publicized identifying details on the shooter, who was killed on the scene — and after it came out that the attacker was apparently a registered Republican, complicating that attempted narrative, Vance’s post still remained on social media.
