[erimir]

Best thing you can say about it is that Trump didn't mean that, but he doesn't mind if you interpret it as meaning there won't be any more elections.

But a lot of the charitable readings remind me of people before January 6 confidently stating that Trump wouldn't try to stay in office through illegal means. Like yeah, he leaves some room for interpretation, it's not simply saying "There won't be elections and I'll be President For Life" but he wasn't saying before or on January 6th "And I will have a mob of my biggest fans assault the Capitol and attempt to force Congress and Mike Pence to certify me as the victor, or at least delay the certification so I have more time to coerce people" or something that explicit.

Maybe not every time has the worst interpretation of Trump's statements borne out (although you can't always attribute that to him never meaning it, as he has tried and been blocked or been talked out of it or reacted to a backlash in some cases), but you certainly can't look at his history and rule out the most negative interpretations.

Originally Posted by NY Times

Former President Donald J. Trump, in an interview broadcast Monday night, repeated his recent assertion that Christians will never have to vote again if they vote for him this November, and brushed aside multiple requests to walk back or clarify the statement.

Mr. Trump said last Friday to a gathering of Christian conservatives: “I love you. You got to get out and vote. 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.”

His interviewer on Monday, Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, noted that Democrats have highlighted that quote as evidence that Mr. Trump would end elections, and urged Mr. Trump to rebut what she called a “ridiculous” criticism.

But Mr. Trump declined to do so, repeating a pattern he frequently employs in which he makes a provocative statement that can be interpreted in varying ways, and makes no attempt to quiet the uproar. This comment was especially striking, given his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his shattering of other democratic norms.

The exchange began when Ms. Ingraham told the former president: “They’re saying that you said to a crowd of Christians that they won’t have to vote in the future.”

Mr. Trump started off his response, saying: “Let me say what I mean by that. I had a tremendous crowd, speaking to Christians all in all — I mean, this was a crowd that liked me a lot.”

He added that Catholics are “treated very badly by this administration” and that “they’re like persecuted,” then digressed, saying that Jewish people who voted for Democrats “should have your head examined,” a sentiment he has expressed many times before, drawing criticism of antisemitism. He then reiterated his statement from Friday.

“I said, vote for me, you’re not going to have to do it ever again. It’s true,” he said. “Because we have to get the vote out. Christians are not known as a big voting group. They don’t vote. And I’m explaining that to them. You never vote. This time, vote. I’ll straighten out the country, you won’t have to vote anymore. I won’t need your vote.”

Ms. Ingraham offered him an off-ramp: “You mean you don’t have to vote for you, because you’ll have four years in office.”

Mr. Trump began talking about gun owners not voting, but Ms. Ingraham interrupted him.

“It’s being interpreted, as you are not surprised to hear, by the left as, well, they’re never going to have another election,” she said. “So can you even just respond —”

Mr. Trump cut her off, claiming again that Christians “vote in very small percentages,” and digressing into how he would change voting practices.

He then repeated his statement from Friday once more, saying his message had been: “Don’t worry about the future. You have to vote on Nov. 5. After that, you don’t have to worry about voting anymore. I don’t care, because we’re going to fix it. The country will be fixed and we won’t even need your vote anymore, because frankly we will have such love, if you don’t want to vote anymore, that’s OK.”