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During a White House press conference in late August, President Donald Trump addressed accusations that he is acting like a "dictator."

Trump told reporters, "A lot of people are saying, 'Maybe we'd like a dictator.' I don't like a dictator. I'm not a dictator. I'm a man with great common sense, and a smart person."

One of Trump's targets is Miles Taylor, who served the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) during Trump's first presidency but is now an outspoken critic. The Never Trump conservative, who is facing a federal investigation, regards Trump as a dangerous authoritarian.

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During a Wednesday morning, August 27 appearance on CNN, Taylor explained why he is zeroing on the line, "A lot of people are saying, 'Maybe we'd like a dictator.'"

"Look at what Trump said five years ago," Taylor told CNN's John Berman. "He said: When you are president of the United States, the authority is total — and that's how it's gotta be. And five years later, he's still saying things that would indicate his interest in being a dictator. Now, I will tell you, having spent time personally with the man in his first Trump Administration, he would wax poetic in private about foreign dictators he admired. He was jealous of their ability to exert total control over their populations."

Taylor continued, "That is the president of the United States we are seeing now. And he is not joking."

Taylor was serving as DHS chief of staff under then-Homeland Security Kirstjen M. Nielsen when he anonymously wrote a New York Times op-ed that was published on September 5, 2018 and headlined, "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration." Years later, Taylor came out as the person who wrote it.

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Taylor told Berman, "When he said he was going to be America's retribution, people said no, he's joking about that. When he said he was going to lock people up, people said he was joking. When he said he was going to send in the troops, people said nah, he's joking. He's doing all of those things, John."

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