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. 'm a 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 be a “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.