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Comment by FireBeyond | Hacker News Reader

He has literally said, and not paraphrasing, to his crowds... "You need to get out and vote, and if everything goes well, maybe you won't need to vote again."

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"You know, FDR, 16 years — almost 16 years — he was four terms. I don't know, are we going to be considered three-term? Or two-term?" also said

For those curious like I was, he actually said that last May [1] I think though that age is strongly against him, had he been 10 or 15 years younger he could have probably pulled it off.

[1] https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/18/trump-at-nra-conven...

The context of that was he was addressing a subset of voters (Christians) who didn’t particularly like him but he needs their votes in this elction, possibly due to the perception that Democrats would somehow cheat without a decisive victory.

Trump says a lot of things and does not choose his words wisely. Or maybe he does and these are all dog whistles. I guess we’ll find out.

Another Trump quote taken totally out of context. He was encouraging people who don't normally vote to get out and vote this time.

People who oppose Trump don't do themselves any favors by misrepresenting this stuff. The guy is a ghoul and says plenty of terrible things that don't need misrepresentation to make him look bad.

It seems like it has the necessary context and is without any sort of "misrepresentation".

Your reply explains the "You need to get out and vote" part, but it doesn't explain the "and if everything goes well, maybe you won't need to vote again" part. What context do you believe makes the 2nd part alright?

The country is in good enough shape that they can go back to not caring if it's a Democrat or Republican in the White House.

This perspective is willfully ignorant towards social issues.

And yet, that was probably what he meant.

Ok, that is also a valid interpretation

If you heard this quote without knowing who said it, you would think it is most likely that the speaker meant “vote again for me”. When a politician says “go vote”, it’s normally implied “go vote for me”.

In context, I think it is obvious that is what Trump meant. People that have been told Trump is a dictator that wants to end democracy obviously won’t approach that quote with normal grace they afford others.

Lets say you are right and the correct interpretation is:

"and if everything goes well, maybe you won't need to vote for me again"

Trump would be term limited, so they would not be able to vote him in as president again anyway. That is why this interpretation does not make sense to me.

It would just be a useful reminder of that fact. Remember: you're trying to sell voting to someone who doesn't normally vote. It's easier to sell it as being a one-off thing versus sell them on voting in all future elections.

> It's easier to sell it as being a one-off thing versus sell them on voting in all future elections.

So a promise to permanently and irrevocably change the country? If it is truly one off that is what it would have to be, which is not possible via normal legal mechanisms in the USA.

If one heard this quote without knowing who said it, they would think it is most likely that the speaker meant "If I win, I will make sure further consent of the governed, unnecessary", which is why the quote got the attention it did, and why, to my knowledge, no other US presidential candidate in the entire history of our nation has ever dared utter it.

> People that have been told Trump is a dictator

I can't imagine where they'd get that idea from. Certainly not from Trump saying he'd be a dictator on day one to close borders and a few other things. But not to worry, "after that, I won't be a dictator".

He will have fixed things to the point that voting someone else in won’t undo the good?

I suppose this is out of context, too? In reference to Clinton being elected:

> "If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks," he said at a rally in Wilmington, N.C., to boos from the crowd. "Although you Second Amendment people ... maybe there is, I don't know."

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