Rachel Maddow Exposes The ‘Special Sauce’ Of Donald Trump’s Strongman Pitch

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow suggested there is “a very simple reason” that Donald Trump keeps praising authoritarian leaders such as Hungary’s Viktor Orbán during the GOP presidential primaries.

It’s because that style of leadership is exactly what Trump is offering if he wins the 2024 presidential election, Maddow told MSNBC colleague Jen Psaki.

“This is the special sauce,” Maddow explained. “Donald Trump is not leading the Republican Party or leading the Republican field of candidates because of his youthful vigor or because of his policy preferences or because of his eloquence. None of that is going on.”

“What he is offering, is what he both inherently offers, and now more and more explicitly offers, which is, ‘If you pick me, that will be the end of politics and you won’t have to deal with politics anymore, you won’t have to deal with contested elections, you won’t have to deal with contests or divisions when it comes to power,’” Maddow said.

“You’ll have a strongman leader and, ‘I’ll just do what I want and won’t that be a lot simpler?’ That’s what he’s offering,” she added. “That strongman model is what the Republican base is enthused about and that is something that sets him apart from every other Republican candidate. And I think that we’re naive to think that he’s tricking people into picking him and then, ‘Surprise!,’ he’s going to act like a dictator.”

Trump is selling the idea of him being the sole leader and “that’s what they are very eager to buy,” Maddow argued.

Support HuffPost

The Stakes Have Never Been Higher

At HuffPost, we believe that everyone needs high-quality journalism, but we understand that not everyone can afford to pay for expensive news subscriptions. That is why we are committed to providing