Donald Trump has said that he will not become a dictator if he becomes US president again except "on day one", after warnings from Democrats and some Republicans that the US was in danger of becoming an autocracy if he wins the 2024 election.
The Republican presidential candidate had to be asked twice during a televised town hall event in Iowa to deny that he would abuse power to seek revenge on political opponents if re-elected to the White House.
"No. No. Other than day one," Mr Trump said when asked to deny he would become a "dictator" if he wins the November election.
Mr Trump said on the "day one" he referred to, he would use his presidential powers to close the southern border with Mexico and expand oil drilling.
Seeking a second White House term in a likely election re-match with Democratic President Joe Biden, the former president has frequently promised "retribution" on political opponents if he gains power again.
Targets include Mr Biden, prosecutors who have charged him with dozens of crimes, the Department of Justice, and the federal bureaucracy, he said in campaign speeches and TV appearances this year.
Read More:
Trump urges supporters to 'guard the vote' in Democratic-run cities
Judge rejects Trump immunity claim in federal 2020 election case
Trump fined $5,000 for violating gag order
Mr Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, was appearing at a Fox News event before a friendly audience in Davenport, Iowa, the state where the party's nominating contest kicks off on 15 January.
As soon as the event finished, Mr Biden's campaign manager ,Julie Chavez Rodriguez, said in a statement: "Donald Trump has been telling us exactly what he will do if he's re-elected and tonight he said he will be a dictator on day one. Americans should believe him."
Mr Trump was US president between 2017 and 2021, and has refused to concede that he lost to Mr Biden in the 2020 election.
Since then Mr Trump has spread false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, a conspiracy that fuelled the deadly insurrection by Trump supporters at the US Capitol on 6 January 6, 2021. Mr Trump's election lies also form a cornerstone of his current White House campaign.
His rivals for the nomination, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, will appear at a televised debate tonight at the University of Alabama.
Mr Trump will skip the event, as he has done for the three previous Republican debates.
Mr Biden has repeatedly warned that Mr Trump is a threat to democracy, and that a second Trump term could usher in an unprecedented and dangerous age of US autocracy.
Former US Representative Liz Cheney, a Republican who is an outspoken critic of Mr Trump and who co-chaired the congressional probe of the attack on the Capitol, said in media interviews to promote a memoir this week that a Trump dictatorship is a "very real threat" if he wins re-election.
Biden 'not sure' he'd be seeking re-election if not for Trump
Meanwhile, President Biden said he was unsure if he would be seeking re-election were Mr Trump not also trying for a second term.
"If Trump wasn't running, I'm not sure I'd be running. But we cannot let him win," the 81-year-old told a 2024 election campaign fundraiser in Weston, Massachusetts.
He praised the "powerful voice" of Ms Cheney and also mentioned the Atlantic magazine outlining what it said were the threats posed by a second Trump term, one of three major US media outlets to issue similar warnings in recent days along with the Washington Post and New York Times.
During an earlier fundraiser in Boston, Mr Biden cited Mr Trump's increasingly extreme language on the campaign trail, including calling his opponents "vermin".
Mr Biden said that echoed the language used in Germany in the 1930s, when Adolf Hitler's Nazis were on the rise.
"Trump's not even hiding the ball anymore. He's telling us what he's going to do," Mr Biden said. "He's making no bones about it."
On his return to Washington, reporters asked Mr Biden again if he would be running without Mr Trump as his opponent.
"He is running and I have to run," Mr Biden said.
If Mr Trump drops out, would he do the same? "No, not now," Mr Biden said.
Mr Trump is narrowly ahead in opinion polls despite facing a number of criminal trials including one for election subversion.
Mr Biden's age is a particular concern with voters and there have been calls from some Democrats for him to step aside for a new candidate.
"Joe Biden is the real dictator," Mr Trump responded in a post on his Truth Social network yesterday.
