Fox News Insists Trump’s ‘Dictator’ Threat Was One Big Joke
Donald J. Trump’s declaration Tuesday night that he would be a “dictator” only on “Day One” of his presidency wasn’t to be taken seriously, Fox News host Jesse Watters insisted Wednesday.
“It’s only a dictatorship for one day, guys,” Watters began, chuckling. “He’ll just sit and sign executive orders like Biden did.”
Trump, Watters claimed, “knows exactly what he is doing.”
“He’s teasing the press and they just took the bait,” he claimed, before playing clips of two MSNBC contributors who—unlike Watters—were not taking Trump lightly.
“Look how unhappy these people look. MSNBC needs to relax. And don’t you dare laugh at Trump’s jokes. They aren’t funny,” the Fox host said, before going to another round of clips, this time from the rival network’s Morning Joe show.
In 2016 I heard people say they like Trump bc he says what he means.
For someone who says what they mean, there sure is a lot of explaining intent coming from the right.
Every 4 years we get the summer Olympics, and yet the hurdles competition there still ain't in the level of MAGAts trying to walk back the latest Trump comment.
"you can't take him literally, but you have to take him seriously." actual MAGoo quote.
2016 was two things at the same time:
Often said one right after the other.
It's always a "joke" when he gets criticized for saying something absolutely atrocious.
It's a test. If the atrocious thing he says is liked, it's serious. If not, it's a joke.
Middle school 101
Also known as "Schrodinger's Douchebag"
It's not a test. There are no ifs. It's a message that got through to its audience. None of this back-peddling will or is intended to reach that audience. The message is sent and it seems well-received.
It's Schrödinger's douchebag
If you agree with him it's real, if you disagree it was a joke, stop being so uptight
I agree. He was joking about it only being one day.
Exactly.
*arrow mine. may it find Trump's knee.
They are the DARVO party.
I would've aimed for his puckered asshole, but I guess knee works too
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He already took 3 arrows to the knee
If you're always "joking," you're never joking.
Of course they did. a tan suit is far beneath the office, but joking about being a fascist is not. Makes perfect sense
Trump always lies about what he’s done.
He never lies about what he wants to do.
If he says he wants to be a dictator, then that’s exactly who he wants to be.
Oops hahah the guillotine went off haha it was just a joke, stop rolling away haha lmao.
Yeah it's not a joke though. Why would I believe fox news? And why wouldn't I believe Trump?
When someone tells you who they are, believe them until they demonstrate otherwise.
Look, it's only a joke until I decide it's not - Trump
It's Schrodinger's Joke. You say something awful and it's simultaneously a joke and not a joke until the people hearing it react. That collapses the wave function. If people get offended, then it was just a joke. If people cheer for it, then it was serious.
― George Orwell, 1984
Very fitting quote. I can't believe they're trying to call it a "hoax".
Oh isn't that so funny how he wants to restructure the government with only people loyal to him? Isn't that hilarious how he wants to throw out the election results and override the will of the people? Isn't that just an absolute gas how he wants to ignore term limits and appoint himself ruler for life?
No. That shit isn't a hoax and it isn't funny. Wtf is wrong with Fox News to even try to make a joke out of this?
2+2=5
The only Jesse Watters clip I can get behind is the one where his mom tells him how disappointed she is in him for lying to people for profit.
His mother sounded like she was a nice person. So what the fuck happened to him?
One of the scariest things about parenting is how little control you really have over outcomes for your kids. I have watched my kid make bad decisions and there's just fuck all I can do but hope she learns from the experience and isn't too badly hurt by it while giving her all the love I can.
I'm not talking about falling down the stairs of course; certainly nothing safety related. But decisions with friends, academics .... you can model good behavior, your can inform, you can supply incentives, and consequences, but end of day, it's their life.
I mean my mom is a raging Qanon, Trump loving, anti-vax (recently), evangelical and I'd happily vote for Bernie and got my last round of boosters a few days ago, so it goes both ways I guess.
Unfortunately, this happens way too often. Despite their family's best intentions for them, money speaks louder.
Ahh ha ha ha, ahh ha ha ha! Dictatorships are soooo freaking funny guys. Remember when the US backed Pinochet's military junta in Chile? God that was hilarious. Super funny when they started disappearing people. And the torture, good times, good times.
Oh, you mean the conflict that's glorified by right-wing terrorist groups today because it targeted leftists?
Fun reminder that the GOP today has the same enemies as the Nazis: sexual, ethnic, and religious minorities & leftists. Its not a coincidence, its a plan.
Yep, that's the one. Absolute hilarity! Let's not pretend there hasn't been plenty of dictator humor from the left also though. Unfortunately, supporting "leftist" ideals does not preclude your being a brutal "comedian".
Well yes, one can be an idiot on the left and wish for a Reign of Terror.
But the left doesn't really have a problem with paramilitary groups advertising that they're training for a civil war while trying to overthrow elections and invoking that imagery.
I fear it’ll take blood in the streets before people really see what this is all about.
There's already been blood in the streets.
A Nazi from a Nazi march ran down an innocent woman and killed her. Trump said that there are 'fine people on both sides.'
Rivers of blood in the streets.
The amount of mental gymnastics this crowd needs to go through to defend Trump. Wild.
I can only hope that the name Jesse Watters is lost to history, and not studied by future historians trying to figure out how the fuck we let Trump come to power a second time.
I can only hope history remembers that one time on his first day of his new job when his mom called him live on air to tell him not to do exactly the shit he is doing.
Let me walk into a bank and joke about robbing it. Only if I get caught, of course.
And before anyone says we're snowflakes and can't take a joke -- he's not joking. This was not a joke. Vote accordingly, and be warned, you do NOT want to be living in a dictatorship.
Sure, it’s “just a prank, bro.”
"But if he was a dictator, that would be good actually" --same guy
Literally tried to overthrow American democracy but somehow any mention of engaging in the actions of a dictator is supposed to be construed as an obvious joke.
Yeah, the end of America is just hilarious. Anyway, why would anyone believe these gaslighting assholes? They also claimed (and many continue to) that they have no plans to end abortion nationwide. Same with other rights like birth control and gay marriage.
Don't believe any of them. They are liars.
We have been through all this before. Who are they trying to fool?
Trump doesn't make jokes. Ever.
Trump is known for being a jokester. A real funny guy 🙄
He is actually known to be funny, that's part of the appeal for why people go to his events. We don't find it funny because they are often far right or authoritarian jokes which are not actually funny to the people who have justifiable fears of the jokes not being jokes at all.
That is part of why the right lets him off the hook for so much, until he actually does it its "just a joke" or "just saying it"
Just like how Palpatine said that "he was the Senate" hahah good times. Glad to see it was only a joke and he didn't userp the power of the entire galactic Republic and become an emperor /s
If only there was some way for a news organization that regularly interviews him to get a straight answer on the specific question of whether he intends to be a dictator for any period of time.
You kidding? A straight answer? He would just dance around, never complete a sentence and the interviewer would thank him for it.
Then cut to the next TOYOTATHON commercial.
Pay no attention to the dictator behind the suit!
They also insist that I hit a guy with my car. I did not. I know who not to believe.
"Just the tip" is always a lie
I don't think it was a joke as much as I think he doesn't really know what a dictator is. He just heard it a lot and said it because it sounds cool. Pretty confident that's how he uses most words.
I wish what you said was true, But I think he knows exactly what a dictator is and craves the power that they have.
He reads Hitler's speeches, FFS. If he doesn't know what a dictator is, then I question his basic literacy.
But the way I see it, he only craves the power insomuch as it gets him more money and fame. The power is the means to his ends.
I mean on the plus side. If he does get elected again than we could cleanse the tree of liberty with him.
Does Trump know Watters thinks he's a joke?
Ha, ha, ha.
What it was ... was an extra Christmas present for Biden.