Trump dismisses warnings that his victory would threaten democracy and says Biden is the real threat

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday characterized warnings that his victory in 2024 would represent a threat to democracy as a 'hoax' and 'Democrat misinformation.'

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday characterized warnings that his victory in 2024 would represent a threat to democracy as a “hoax” and “Democrat misinformation.”

The former president, who faces federal and state charges stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, said in a speech hosted by the New York Young Republican Club that President Joe Biden “is the real threat to democracy.”

“Can you believe it? This is their new line, you know,” Trump said. “Here we go again — ‘Russia, Russia, Russia,’ ‘Mueller, Mueller, Mueller,’ ‘Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine.’ One hoax after another.

“But no, I’m not a threat. I will save democracy. The threat is Crooked Joe Biden,” Trump said. “And that’s what it is, it’s a hoax. We call it now the threat-to-democracy hoax, because that’s what it is.”

The former president, who said last week that he wouldn’t be a dictator if reelected “except for Day 1” to address the border and domestic oil production, complained about how those remarks had been characterized, saying he never claimed he wanted to be a dictator.

“I said I want to be a dictator for one day,” Trump said. “And you know why I want to be a dictator? Because I want a wall … and I want to drill, drill, drill.”

Trump said later that Democrats’ attacks regarding democracy were a “desperate and shameless attempt to distract from the monstrous abuses of power the left is committing before your very eyes.” He pointed to more than a dozen state-level petitions to remove him from the 2024 ballot, citing a clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment barring those who have engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” from office.