‘Maybe [Americans] like a dictator’: Trump’s swipe at critics asserting right to freedom | Watch

Responding to criticism over his crackdown in Washington, deploying National Guard troops and threatening similar moves in other American cities, President Donald Trump on Monday remarked, “A lot of people are saying, ‘Maybe we like a dictator.’”

“I’m not a dictator. I’m a man with great common sense,” Trump said, defending his approach. “And they say … ‘He’s a dictator. He’s a dictator,’” he continued, referring to his critics. “A lot of people are saying, ‘Maybe we’d like a dictator.’ I don’t like a dictator. I’m not a dictator.”

Chicago and Baltimore in focus

#WATCH: #US President Donald Trump on Monday suggested Americans would like a dictator as he signed orders to tighten his federal clampdown on the capital #Washington and to prosecute flag-burners https://t.co/oxtHFDn7Ew pic.twitter.com/OGkz4cJqe5

— Arab News (@arabnews) August 26, 2025

Trump reiterated his warning that Chicago could be the next city where he might deploy National Guard troops to curb crime. He added that he was considering sending the military into Chicago and Baltimore as part of a broader push against Democratic-led cities. In June, he had already dispatched the National Guard to Los Angeles, despite opposition from both the mayor and the California governor.

The president also took aim at Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, a vocal critic of his approach, dismissing the Democrat’s rejection of any troop deployment in Chicago.

“You send them, and instead of being praised, they’re saying, ‘you’re trying to take over the Republic,’” Trump said. “These people are sick.”

Executive order on flag burning

Later on Monday, Trump escalated his clampdown further by signing an executive order to investigate and prosecute those who burn the US flag, despite a 1989 Supreme Court ruling that protects the act as free speech.

“If you burn a flag you get one year in jail, no early exits, no nothing,” Trump declared.

Security measures and Department of War

Alongside the order, Trump rolled out new security measures in Washington, instructing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to establish a special National Guard unit for public order and ending cashless bail. He also revealed plans to rename Hegseth’s department back to the Department of War, its title from 1789 to 1947.

“Defence is too defensive,” Trump told reporters.

Democrats push back

Democrats have accused Trump of stretching presidential powers far beyond constitutional limits, especially with his repeated deployment of the National Guard in the capital. But the billionaire president has also expanded his crackdown to target the federal bureaucracy, “woke” politics, and his political opponents.

In a fiery 45-minute Oval Office address before taking questions, Trump pushed back against charges of racism, declaring, “I love Black People.” He then turned to immigration, describing a Salvadoran man set for deportation to Uganda as an “animal.”