Trump says Americans ‘like a dictator’

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump this week suggested many Americans would like a dictator as he signed orders to tighten his federal clampdown on the capital Washington and to prosecute flag-burners.

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During a rambling 80-minute event in the Oval Office, Trump lambasted critics and the media as he complained that he was not getting credit for his National Guard-backed crackdown on crime and immigration.

“They say ‘we don't need him. Freedom, freedom. He’s a dictator. He's a dictator? A lot of people are saying: “Maybe we like a dictator,” Trump told reporters.

“I don't like a dictator. 'm not a dictator. [ma man with great common sense and a smart person.”

Trump - who attempted to overturn the results of his 2020 election defeat by Joe Biden at the end of his first term — said before winning a second term in November that he would bea “dictator on day one”.

Republican Trump deployed the National Guard to Washington earlier this month to counter what he alleged was an out-of-control crime problem, also taking federal control of the city’s police department.