Donald Trump repeats 'you won't have to vote any more' claim

Former United States President and Republican presidential candidateDonald Trump reiterated remarks made on Friday (Jul 26) and suggested that Christians would never need to vote again if he wins the presidency in November.

However, the former president denied any intention to stay in office beyond the constitutionally mandated two terms during an interview with Fox News on Monday (Jul29).

The recent controversy began with Trump's comments on Friday, where he told the crowd, "Get out and vote, just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what? It will be fixed, it will be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians."

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The statement sparked outrage among Democrats who labelled it as authoritarian and anti-democratic.

But in a Monday (July 29) interview with Fox News, Trump attempted to clarify his comments while attempting to throw the spotlight on low voter turnout from theChristian community.

"I said, vote for me, you’re not going to have to do it ever again. It’s true," he said. "Because we have to get the vote out. Christians are not known as a big voting group. They don’t vote. And I’m explaining that to them. You never vote. This time, vote. I’ll straighten out the country, you won’t have to vote anymore. I won’t need your vote."

Also watch |Trump says he will 'fix' future elections if elected to office

He then repeated his statement from Friday once more, saying his message had been: "Don’t worry about the future. You have to vote on Nov. 5. After that, you don’t have to worry about voting anymore. I don’t care, because we’re going to fix it. The country will be fixed and we won’t even need your vote anymore, because frankly we will have such love, if you don’t want to vote anymore, that’s OK."

When the host Laura Ingraham pointed out that Democrats interpreted his remarks as suggesting the end of future elections, the former presidentresponded by saying thathe was unaware of such interpretations.

He told Ingraham that he would leave office after four years if reelected, stating, “Of course. By the way … I did last time.”

Trump's spokesperson previously told the Washington Post that his remarks were about uniting the country and bringing prosperity to every American.

The 22nd Amendment ofthe US Constitution, enacted in 1951, limits presidents to two four-year terms, a provision designed to prevent any president from holding office indefinitely.

(With inputs from agencies)