Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused former President Donald Trump of wanting to model himself after dictators like Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On a podcast, Clinton said Putin does things Trump would like to do, such as kill opposition, imprison critics, exile journalists, and rule without checks, seeing only “strong men” leaders as Putin, Xi Jinping, and Kim Jong Un as models.
“Putin does what [Trump] would like to do,” Clinton said. “Kill his opposition, imprison his opposition, drive journalists into exile, rule without any check or balance. That’s what Trump really wants. And so we have to be very conscious of how he sees the world because in that world, he only sees strong men leaders.”
She argued having negotiated with Putin, she knew he went after her because she would deal with him appropriately, unlike Trump who would “do whatever he wanted.”
“He sees Putin, he sees Xi, he sees Kim Jong Un in North Korea. Those are the people he is modeling himself after and we’ve been down this road in our, you know, world history. We sure don’t want to go down that again.”
Clinton warned of dangers if Trump returned to the White House, saying he wanted to withdraw from NATO and see countries like Ukraine fail.
She referenced Trump’s past praise of Putin and other authoritarian leaders in alleging Trump desires a similar authoritarian style of leadership without accountability.
“My view, having negotiated with Putin, and knowing one of the reasons he went after me is because he knew I would deal with him in an appropriate way, and Trump would basically do whatever he wanted, it’s really important to think about what could happen to our world with Trump back in the White House,” Clinton said.
“Withdrawing us from NATO, not caring about what happens with Europe … The idea that he wants Ukraine to fail. The idea that he doesn’t want us to be able to surveil our enemies. This is a very scary prospect.”
