Former President Donald Trump has faced a steady stream of claims that he would take America toward a dictatorship. But according to Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND), we're already in one — President Joe Biden's dictatorship.
"Under Joe Biden, we're actually living under a dictatorship today, where he's, you know, bypassing Congress on immigration policy, he's bypassing Congress on protecting our border, he's bypassing Congress on student loan forgiveness and he's defying the Supreme Court, I mean, those are things that authoritarians and dictators do, they don't follow democratic processes and they just assert their liberal view, and that's what the Biden administration is doing," Burgum said Wednesday on Fox News.
Contrary to Burgum's claim, Biden is not "defying the Supreme Court" on student loans, rather forgiving loans under existing programs passed by Congress, as the Supreme Court said he would have to do when it struck down his initial forgiveness plan that relied on the HEROES Act.
Similarly, Biden's immigration plan announced this week only applies to removing regulatory barriers for some 500,000 undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens, whom federal law passed by Congress already says are eligible for green cards.
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Burgum is one of several Republican politicians currently on the shortlist for consideration as Trump's vice presidential running mate for 2024.
The dictator comment in question was met with skepticism even from some within the Republican party.
CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu for a response to the comment, with the governor replying that while he's a huge fan of the "wonderful governor," he "wouldn't use the word dictatorship."
"I think there's obviously some hyperbole in there," said Sununu, adding: "I think it's just really, really, really bad policy. Really bad policy and that, ultimately, the judge of that is ... are we better off now than we were four years ago? Most people will tell you that they're not getting better off, mostly because of their financial situation."
All of this comes as Trump has faced intense scrutiny from experts about the authoritarian agenda he and his supporters have planned if he wins a second term, ranging from mass deportations to the potential adoption of a Heritage Foundation plan known as "Project 2025" that would replace the entire federal civil service with a partisan army loyal to Trump.
Trump, for his part, has even said outright that he would be a "dictator on day one" to crack down on the border and change U.S. energy policy, but has claimed that he would stop being a dictator after that.
Watch Burgum's video below or at the link here.