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Saturday, November 14, 2026Nov 14

Opinion: Trump’s campaign in 2016 was a populist revolt. In 2024, it’s a quest for retribution

Photo/Jordan Gale/The New York Times / Former President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a campaign event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Dec. 2, 2023. Talk about the possible authoritarian quality of a new Trump presidency has suffused the political conversation in recent days.
Photo/Jordan Gale/The New York Times / Former President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a campaign event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Dec. 2, 2023. Talk about the possible authoritarian quality of a new Trump presidency has suffused the political conversation in recent days.

The question to former President Donald Trump last week was a softball, served up as an opportunity to rebut his critics.

“They want to call you a dictator,” Sean Hannity told him at a Fox News town hall. “Do you in any way have any plans whatsoever, if reelected president, to abuse power, to break the law, to use the government to go after people?”

Most candidates would have assured voters that they wouldn’t. Not Trump.

“You mean like they’re using [it] right now?” he replied, referring to the Biden administration. “I got indicted four times.”

Hannity gave him another opening: