Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Saturday accused President Donald Trump of behaving like an authoritarian ruler, writing on X that the president is acting “like a mad king & a tinpot dictator” after Trump led a crowd of supporters in a personal pledge of loyalty at the Republican Party’s midterm convention. Sanders’ post, published at 11:19 a.m. on September 12, 2026, directly tied the accusation to video from the GOP gathering in Dallas in which Trump asked attendees to raise their right hands and vow to vote for him even if they were not registered, and to “cheat like hell” while doing it.
Sanders published his statement in full on his verified X account, and the post read in its entirety:
“Does anyone think this is sane behavior? No, Mr. Trump. In America, we don’t take loyalty oaths encouraging supporters ‘to cheat like hell’ & do whatever it takes to keep your party in power even if they’re not registered to vote. Stop acting like a mad king & a tinpot dictator.”
Sanders’ post linked directly to a Washington Post report published the previous day detailing the moment at the GOP’s midterm convention that prompted his response. According to the Post, Trump closed out the two-day event at Dallas’s American Airlines Center on Thursday night by asking the audience to raise their right hands and repeat a pledge directed not at the country or the Constitution, but at himself personally.
What Trump Told the Crowd to Pledge
Trump began the oath by having the crowd repeat: “I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States, that loves us so much he can’t even breathe.” He then continued, according to the Post’s report, telling attendees, “that I will go out with my family, my friends. I’ll do it any way. I don’t care if I’m registered or not. I’m going to try and cheat like hell, like they do,” a reference to his long-running and unsubstantiated claims that Democrats have engaged in widespread voter fraud. He closed the pledge with “So help me God.”
Other outlets that covered the same moment reported additional lines from the exchange, including Trump telling the crowd “There’s never been bigger cheaters” as he framed the pledge as a jab at Democrats rather than a literal instruction to break election law, and warning attendees who failed to vote that they would “go to hell.” Video of the moment circulated widely online in the days that followed, drawing more than a million views on a single repost from one journalism-focused account.
Earlier in the same speech, Trump also accused Democrats of opposing his Save America Act “because they want to cheat. There’s no other reason,” according to the Post. The legislation he referenced — formally the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE America Act — would require voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship when registering and to show photo identification at the polls, among other restrictions on voter registration.
The Save America Act’s Path Through Congress
The bill passed the House 218-213 in February 2026 with the support of 217 Republicans and one Democrat, and Senate Republicans took it up in March, but it has stalled without the 60 votes needed to overcome a Democratic filibuster. Republicans control 53 Senate seats, meaning they would need at least seven Democratic votes to advance it, and none have materialized as of this writing. The measure would also require states to turn voter registration lists over to the Department of Homeland Security and would impose criminal penalties, including prison time, on election workers who mistakenly register a voter without adequate proof of citizenship — even if that voter is in fact a U.S. citizen.
A Broader Pattern of Warnings From Sanders
Saturday’s post was not an isolated remark. Sanders has repeatedly accused Trump of authoritarian conduct throughout his second term, often in statements posted directly to his official Senate website. In June 2026, Sanders wrote on X, “No, Mr. President. The 2020 election that you lost was not ‘rigged’ or ‘dirty,’ handing out $1.776 billion to violent insurrectionists is not a ‘good idea’ & reporters who ask questions about your bogus claims are not ‘crooked.’ You are a president, not a dictator. Act like it,” after Trump called journalists “crooked” during a network television interview.
Sanders has also used his official Senate press office to formally document his concerns. In a statement titled “Sanders Statement on Trump Moving Closer Towards Authoritarianism,” he wrote that a White House move to suspend federal grants and loans was “a dangerous move towards authoritarianism and it is blatantly unconstitutional,” adding that “no president has the right to choose which laws to follow and which laws to ignore” and that Trump “is not a king.”
In a nationally televised response to one of Trump’s congressional addresses, Sanders said, “For the first time in our 250-year history we have a president who is turning his back on democracy and allying us with authoritarianism,” and argued that “we must always stand for democracy, not dictatorship.”
Sanders extended similar criticism to Trump’s foreign policy in a November 2025 statement responding to the president’s White House meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, writing that the visit showed Trump “signals to the world that the United States is now on the side of authoritarianism, not democracy.” He has issued comparable warnings over Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles, telling CNN that “we have a president who is moving this country rapidly into authoritarianism,” and over a unilateral military operation targeting Venezuela, stating that “the President of the United States does NOT have the right to unilaterally take this country to war, even against a corrupt and brutal dictator like Maduro.”
Context From the Dallas Convention
The convention where Trump delivered the pledge was billed as the first Republican National Convention held ahead of a midterm election, and it doubled as a showcase for the party’s 2028 presidential field, with Vice President JD Vance drawing repeated “48” chants from the crowd during his keynote address the same night. The two-night event also paused for tributes marking the first anniversary of the assassination of activist Charlie Kirk and the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, before Trump took the stage for a rambling, nearly two-hour address that also included a proposal to give every adult U.S. citizen a $5,000 payment if Republicans retain control of Congress.
Reaction and Political Stakes
The pledge drew swift backlash online beyond Sanders’ post. One widely shared X account, Call to Activism, wrote in response to the video that Trump was “officially having a mental attack on stage while millions of Americans watch on live TV,” invoking the 25th Amendment. The clip’s viral spread underscored how the moment quickly became a flashpoint in the run-up to the November elections, which will determine control of both chambers of Congress.
The midterm elections are scheduled for November 3, 2026, and both parties have treated the outcome as a referendum on Trump’s second term. Sanders’ post cast the president’s convention remarks as part of a broader effort to secure loyalty from supporters ahead of that vote, framing the pledge not as a joke but as evidence of a leader demanding personal fealty rather than allegiance to democratic institutions. As of Saturday, the Save America Act remained stalled in the Senate, and Trump had not issued a public response to Sanders’ latest post.