The Crazy Things Trump Says, Part 1: Strongmen, Loyalty and the Press
There is a habit in American politics of laughing off what Donald Trump says. It was a joke. It was sarcasm. He was trolling. Take him seriously, not literally. Some of the time, that defense is fair, and I will tell you when his side said it. But after ten years of campaigns and two terms in office, the words have piled up into a pattern, and the pattern is not funny.
My opinion, up front: Taken together, Trump’s own words show a consistent admiration for strongmen who rule without limits, a belief that his supporters will follow him no matter what, and open hostility to the free press and public media. Each quote alone can be explained away. All of them together are a worldview.
This is Part 1 of a two-part series. It covers the outlandish and alarming things he has said. Part 2, “When Trump Talks Like the Law Doesn’t Apply,” covers the statements where he urged, praised or floated acts that are illegal or unconstitutional.
Also in this series: The Crazy Things Trump Says, Part 2: When Trump Talks Like the Law Doesn’t Apply
Every quote below is verbatim from a transcript, recording or his own posts, with the date and the context. Where his side said he was joking, I say so. Judge for yourself.
1. “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody”#
The quote: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK? It’s, like, incredible.”
When and where: January 23, 2016, at a campaign stop at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa, while he was talking about the loyalty of his supporters.
He returned to the theme as president. At the VFW convention in Kansas City on July 24, 2018, attacking news coverage, he told the crowd: “And just remember: What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”
Why it matters: This is a candidate bragging that his followers’ loyalty does not depend on his conduct, then later telling them not to trust what they see with their own eyes. Loyalty that doesn’t depend on facts or behavior is the raw material every personality-driven movement runs on. He said it out loud, and he said it as a boast.
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2. Kim Jong Un: “And then we fell in love”#
The quote: “We fell in love.” … “No really. He wrote me beautiful letters. They were great letters. And then we fell in love.”
When and where: September 29, 2018, at a rally in Wheeling, West Virginia, describing his letters with North Korea’s dictator.
Three months earlier, on June 15, 2018, he told Fox & Friends: “Hey, he is the head of a country and I mean he is the strong head… Don’t let anyone think anything different. He speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.” When reporters asked about it later that day, he said: “I’m kidding, you don’t understand sarcasm.”
Why it matters: Kim runs one of the most repressive states on Earth, with political prison camps documented by the United Nations. Diplomacy with adversaries is normal. Gushing about one, and saying you’d like Americans to “sit up at attention” the way North Koreans do, is not. He said he was kidding about the second line, and you can weigh that.
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3. Vladimir Putin: “This is genius”#
The quotes: Standing next to Putin in Helsinki on July 16, 2018, asked whether he believed U.S. intelligence or Putin on election interference: “I don’t see any reason why it would be.” … “President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.” The next day he said he meant to say “wouldn’t.”
On February 22, 2022, after Putin declared two regions of eastern Ukraine “independent,” two days before the full invasion, he told the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton radio show: “I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion … of Ukraine, Putin declares it as independent.” … “You gotta say that’s pretty savvy.”
In fairness: He has also criticized Putin. On May 25, 2025, after heavy Russian strikes on Ukraine, he posted that Putin “has gone absolutely CRAZY.”
Why it matters: A U.S. president publicly sided with a hostile foreign leader over his own intelligence agencies, on foreign soil. Years later he called the opening move of Europe’s biggest war since 1945 “genius” and “savvy.” The later criticism is real, but the pattern of admiration is the baseline it is measured against.
Sources
- Helsinki transcript (CBC)
- NPR on “genius”
- Full interview audio and transcript (Clay and Buck)
- Reuters on “absolutely CRAZY”
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4. Xi Jinping: “Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot some day”#
The quote: “He’s now president for life. President for life. No, he’s great… And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot some day.”
When and where: March 3, 2018, at a closed-door fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago, in audio obtained by CNN, after China’s leader moved to scrap term limits. CNN described the speech as upbeat and jokey.
He kept up the praise. At a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on July 20, 2024, he recounted describing Xi as “a brilliant man, he controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist.”
Why it matters: Maybe it was a joke. But “president for life” is the goal of every would-be autocrat, and “iron fist” control of a population is offered here as a compliment. Read it next to his third-term talk in point 8, and the joke looks less like a one-off.
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5. Orban and Erdogan: “They call him a strong man”#
The quotes: At the September 10, 2024 presidential debate: “Viktor Orban, one of the most respected men – they call him a strong man. He’s a tough person. Smart. Prime Minister of Hungary.”
At a White House news conference with Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan on November 13, 2019: “I’m a big fan of the President, I have to tell you that.”
Why it matters: Orban openly calls his system “illiberal democracy,” and he has reshaped Hungary’s courts, media and election rules in his party’s favor. Erdogan jailed tens of thousands after a 2016 coup attempt, including journalists. When a candidate cites a strongman as his character reference in a presidential debate, it tells you what he respects.
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6. “Except for day one”#
The exchange: At a Fox News town hall in Davenport, Iowa, on December 5, 2023, Sean Hannity asked: “Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody.” Trump: “Except for day one.” … “I want to close the border and I want to drill.” Later that night he said, “He says you’re not going to be a dictator, are you? I said, no, no, no. Other than day one. We’re closing the border and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.”
Context: Hannity was giving him an easy chance to reassure voters. His defenders called it a joke.
Why it matters: Asked directly to rule out abusing power, he declined, and treated dictatorship as a punchline he could put a time limit on. In a democracy there is no “day one” exception. A president who wants to close a border or expand drilling has laws and Congress to work through.
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7. “Termination of all rules … even those found in the Constitution”#
The quote: “…do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great “Founders” did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”
When and where: His Truth Social account, December 3, 2022. When it drew criticism, including from some Republicans, he accused the media of misrepresenting him.
Why it matters: No court found fraud on a scale that would have changed the 2020 result. Dozens of his campaign’s lawsuits failed. His remedy for a fraud that didn’t happen was to set aside the Constitution, the document every president swears to “preserve, protect and defend.”
Sources
8. A third term: “I’m not joking”#
The quotes: Asked by NBC’s Kristen Welker on March 30, 2025 about a third term: “I’m not joking.” He added that “it is far too early to think about it” and “There are methods which you could do it.”
In late October 2025 he conceded, “based on what I read, I guess I’m not allowed to run.” But at a rally in Sioux City, Iowa, on October 22, 2026, he was back at it: “I think the law says I’m not allowed to run again.” … “they cheated us on the second one because we won it three times. So I think I have the right to run again.” He also said of the 22nd Amendment: “I’ve studied that phrase for ever. Unfortunately, it’s quite concise.”
Context: House Speaker Mike Johnson has called it trolling.
Why it matters: The 22nd Amendment says no person “shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.” That’s as clear as constitutional text gets. A president musing about “methods” to get around it, while still insisting he won an election he lost, is testing how much his supporters will accept.
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9. “You won’t have to vote anymore”#
The quote: “Christians get out and vote. Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years. You know what? It’ll be fixed. It’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore my beautiful Christians.” … “In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not going to have to vote.”
When and where: July 26, 2024, Turning Point Action’s Believers’ Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Context: His campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said he was “talking about the importance of faith, uniting this country.” Supporters read it as a plea to infrequent voters to show up once. That reading is possible. PolitiFact’s context piece is worth reading.
Why it matters: Even on the most generous reading, it’s a strange thing for any candidate to say. On the plain reading, it’s a promise that the system will be “fixed” so voting won’t be needed. Given points 6 through 8, he doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt.
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10. The press: “The enemy of the American People”#
The quotes: On February 17, 2017, less than a month into his first term: “The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!” An earlier, deleted version of the tweet ended with “SICK!”
At a rally in Lititz, Pennsylvania, on November 3, 2024, two days before the election, talking about the bulletproof glass around him: “And to get me somebody would have to shoot through the fake news. And I don’t mind that so much. I don’t mind that.” His campaign said he was actually saying he wanted to protect the media.
What happened next: ABC agreed in December 2024 to pay $15 million toward his presidential library to settle his defamation suit, and Paramount, CBS’s parent company, settled his “60 Minutes” suit for $16 million in July 2025. In February 2025 the White House barred the Associated Press from the Oval Office and other events because AP kept using “Gulf of Mexico.” A judge ordered AP’s access restored, but an appeals court put that order on hold.
Why it matters: “Enemy of the people” has a long history as a label regimes use before they go after journalists. A president who uses it, jokes about reporters being shot and then wins payouts and access fights against news outlets is making the press weigh the cost of covering him.
Sources
- ABC News on the tweet
- The tweets (UCSB)
- CBS News (Lititz)
- AP (ABC settlement)
- AP (Paramount settlement)
- Reuters (AP access)
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11. Public media: “the radical left ‘MONSTERS’”#
The quote: “REPUBLICANS MUST DEFUND AND TOTALLY DISASSOCIATE THEMSELVES FROM NPR & PBS, THE RADICAL LEFT “MONSTERS” THAT SO BADLY HURT OUR COUNTRY!”
When and where: Truth Social, April 1, 2025.
What happened next: On May 1, 2025 he signed Executive Order 14290, “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media,” ordering agencies to cut off funding to NPR and PBS. In July 2025 Congress passed his rescission package, which took back about $1.1 billion already set aside for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The CPB began winding down that August, and its board voted to dissolve itself. Then, on March 31, 2026, Judge Randolph Moss ruled that key parts of the order were unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination under the First Amendment, because the government can’t defund outlets because the president dislikes their coverage.
Why it matters: Congress has the power to spend or not spend money. A court found that a president targeting specific news organizations because of their content crossed a constitutional line. Either way, the system Congress created in 1967 to fund local public stations, many in rural areas with few other news sources, is gone.
Sources
- The post (UCSB)
- Executive Order 14290 (White House)
- AP (CPB shutdown)
- Current (CPB dissolution vote)
- AP (court ruling)
- Judge Moss’s opinion
12. “They’re eating the dogs”#
The quote: “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating – they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
When and where: The September 10, 2024 presidential debate, watched by about 67 million people. Moderator David Muir corrected him on the spot: Springfield’s city manager had said there were “no credible reports” of it.
What happened next: Springfield, Ohio, a city with thousands of Haitian immigrants, many of them in the country legally under temporary protected status, received more than 30 bomb threats in the following days. All were hoaxes, but schools and city offices had to be evacuated.
Why it matters: A false rumor about a specific community, repeated by a presidential candidate to tens of millions of people, had real consequences for real families. This is what happens when a leader treats facts as optional and his audience believes him anyway (see point 1).
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What it adds up to#
This is my analysis and opinion.
None of these quotes, on its own, proves anything about what a man will do. Politicians exaggerate, and Trump exaggerates more than most. His defenders have a point that some of these were jokes, and I’ve flagged every case where his side said so.
But you don’t have to read his mind. Look at the record. He praises leaders who jail journalists, rig elections and stay in power for life. He tells his supporters their loyalty doesn’t depend on his conduct, and that they shouldn’t believe what they see. He calls the press the enemy of the people and has tried to choke off public media, which a federal judge ruled was unconstitutional. He jokes about being a dictator for a day, posts about “terminating” parts of the Constitution, and keeps bringing up a third term the Constitution forbids.
The jokes keep landing in the same place. At some point, a pattern is the message.
In Part 2, “When Trump Talks Like the Law Doesn’t Apply,” I look at the statements that go further: where he urged, praised or floated things that are illegal or unconstitutional, what the courts said, and why some historians and his own former generals have reached for the word “fascist.”
Also in this series: The Crazy Things Trump Says, Part 2: When Trump Talks Like the Law Doesn’t Apply