The worst 10 things Trump has said in 2023

In a year dominated by Donald Trump's assorted outbursts, it can be hard to keep up with what’s been said.

The Guardian, in an attempt to “keep track of all the racist, unhinged, authoritarian comments by the former president,” on Wednesday published a rundown of the top 10 outrageous things he said in 2023.

On the list:

Vermin

“We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country,” he said during a speech in November.

Links to Adolf Hitler’s tactic of dehumanizing his opponents followed immediately.

Poison

"Nobody has ever seen anything like we’re witnessing right now … It’s poisoning the blood of our country,” he told the National Pulse in September. He repeated the phrase in December. Critics said the phrase was straight out of Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

Dictator

In December, Trump was asked by Fox News’ Sean Hannity if he would promise not to “abuse power as retribution?” He responded, “Except for day one”, then added: “I love this guy. He says, ‘You’re not gonna be a dictator, are you?’ I say, ‘No, no, no – other than day one.’

Retribution

The dictator and retribution theme wasn’t new. In March, he told CPAC: “In 2016, I declared: I am your voice. Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution.”

Death

In September, Trump lost his temper at then-chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley over comments he made to China suggesting he’d guard against attack by Trump, the former president called it, “An act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!

Courts

2023 was the year of the courts for Trump, with 91 criminal charges in four jurisdictions. He ominously warned his prosecutors, "If you go after me, I’m coming after you!"

Indict

Despite him claiming his criminal charges were targeted against him by his enemies, Trump has said he would use exactly that tactic. He told Univision in November, “Of course … yes: If I happen to be president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I say go down and indict them, mostly they would be out of business. They’d be out. They’d be out of the election.”

Animal

It’s an attack that was aimed at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who in April filed 34 charges over Trump’s 2016 payments to Stormy Daniels. “He is a Soros-backed animal who just doesn’t care about right or wrong,” Trump said.

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Whack job

“She’s a whack job,” Trump said about E.Jean Carroll hours after she won a defamation claim against him. She sued him again.

All-out war

Throughout 2023, in fact since the 2020 election, Trump has been complaining about his opponents’ war on democracy.

In December, in Iowa, he said: “That’s why it was one of the great presidencies, they say. Even the opponents sometimes say he did very well … but we’ve been waging an all-out war on American democracy."