Donald
Trump repeats controversial ‘You won’t have to vote any more’ claim
Republican
presidential nominee denies threatening to stay in office after end of possible
second term in Fox interview
Anna Betts
Tue 30 Jul
2024 15.27 BST
Donald Trump
on Monday repeated his weekend remarks to Christian summit attendees that they
would never need to vote again if he returns to the presidency in November.
But, after
being asked repeatedly on Fox News to clarify what he meant, the Republican
former president denied threatening to permanently stay in office beyond his
second – and constitutionally mandated final – four-year term.
During the
initial remarks made on Friday, which caused outrage and alarm among his
critics, Trump told the crowd to “get out and vote, just this time”, adding
that “you won’t have to do it any more. Four more years, you know what? It’ll
be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote any more, my beautiful
Christians.”
Democrats
and other critics called the remarks “terrifying”, authoritarian and
anti-democratic. And Monday, in a new interview with the Fox News host Laura
Ingraham, the former president attempted to explain what he meant.
“That
statement is very simple, I said, ‘Vote for me, you’re not gonna have to do it
ever again,’” Trump told Ingraham. “It’s true, because we have to get the vote
out. Christians are not known as a big voting group, they don’t vote. And I’m
explaining that to them. You never vote. This time, vote. I’ll straighten out
the country, you won’t have to vote any more, I won’t need your vote any more,
you can go back to not voting.”
Ingraham
pointed out that many Democrats had interpreted his comments over the weekend
to mean there would never be another election again. Trump responded that he
had not heard that and continued to talk about how lots of Christians tend to
not vote.
“Christians
do not vote well. They vote in very small percentages. Why? I don’t know. Maybe
they’re disappointed in things that are happening,” Trump continued. “I say,
‘You don’t vote.’ I’m saying, ‘Go out – you must vote.’
“You have to
vote” in the 5 November election, Trump continued, calling it the most
important presidential race in US history. “After that you don’t have to worry
about voting any more. I don’t care, because we’re going to fix it, the country
will be fixed and we won’t even need your vote any more because, frankly, we
will have such love.
“And I think
everybody understood it.”
Ingraham
pressed the former president, asking him, “But you will leave office after four
years?”
Trump
responded, “Of course.”
He added:
“By the way … I did last time.”
Neither
Ingraham nor Trump mentioned that – after Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential
race – his supporters attacked the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 in an attempt
to prevent Congress from certifying his electoral defeat.
A
spokesperson for Trump’s campaign had previously told the Washington Post that
the former president on Friday was “talking about uniting this country and
bringing prosperity to every American, as opposed to the divisive political
environment that has sowed so much division” that it led to the 13 July attempt
on Trump’s life at a political rally in Pennsylvania.
Trump’s
remarks on Friday came about two months after he apparently flirted with the
idea of being president for three terms at the annual National Rifle
Association convention in Dallas.
He alluded
to how Franklin D Roosevelt was in the White House for three full terms – and
died at the beginning of a fourth – from 1933 to 1945, during the Great
Depression and the second world war.
“You know,
FDR 16 years – almost 16 years – he was four terms. I don’t know, are we going
to be considered three-term? Or two-term?” Trump said, prompting some in the
crowd to yell “three!” Politico reported.
The 22nd
amendment to the US constitution, enacted in 1951, now limits presidents to two
four-year terms.
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