WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Donald Trump has long openly admired the world’s dictators, and three weeks before the United States presidential election he’s taking a page from the authoritarian playbook with escalating threats against the “enemy from within”.

One of Trump’s hallmarks as president was his constant use of the phrase “enemy of the people” to describe the media — or at least the media which didn’t paint him in a good light.

But as polls show him with a good chance of beating Kamala Harris next month to regain the White House, Trump got attention Sunday when he called for sending the US military to combat a much broader group of Americans.

Asked on Trump-friendly Fox News whether he expected election day would be peaceful, the Republican cited internal enemies.

“We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical-left lunatics. And I think they’re the — and it should be very easily handled by — if necessary, by National Guard or, if really necessary, by the military,” he said.

“The enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia, and all these countries,” he said.

The only specific “enemy” that Trump identified was senior Democratic congressman and Senate candidate Adam Schiff, whom he described as “a sleazebag” and “major lowlife”.

Trump would not yet have authority over the National Guard or the military on election day, even if he were declared the winner.

However, the suggestion of using the army against Americans reinforces the billionaire’s increasingly dark emphasis on authoritarian messaging.

Trump’s claim on Fox News that “internal” foes are more dangerous than major foreign adversaries like Moscow and Beijing builds on years of admiration for leaders like Russia’s Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping, and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

Those three are “at the top of their game; they’re tough, they’re smart, they’re vicious, and they’re going to protect their country”, he said glowingly in August.

What’s newer is growing emphasis on emulating authoritarians’ domestic crackdowns on US soil.

Last month Trump claimed the country was awash in crime — something refuted by official statistics — then told a rally that the solution would be to allow police to impose a violent crackdown.

“If you had one really violent day,” he mused. “One rough hour — and I mean real rough — the word would get out and it would end immediately.”

It was the kind of language that echoed another of Trump’s favourite lines — that Xi runs China with an “iron hand”.

“He controls 1.4 billion people ruthlessly. Ruthlessly. No games,” Trump lauded in January this year, calling Xi a “brilliant man”.

Democrats — and a long list of former senior Trump presidential staff — have sounded dire warnings about a second term. But Trump himself makes little effort to push back.

Asked last December on Fox whether he had any aims to create a dictatorship, he answered: “No, other than day one.”

Trump has run for years on accusations that a shadowy “deep state” is the truly anti-democratic force in the United States and that he is there to defend ordinary voters.

However, he upended democratic norms in 2020 when he refused to recognise his election loss to Joe Biden. He now continues to cast doubt on whether November’s election will be fair — raising fears of unrest similar to the January 6, 2021 assault by his supporters on the Capitol.

As election day approaches, Trump has repeatedly suggested that in his second term the Justice Department would imprison election cheats — despite no evidence to back his claims that any cheating has taken place.

“WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long-term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again,” Trump posted in September.

As Trump said in an interview with TV host “Dr Phil” in June, “sometimes, revenge can be justified”.