Billboard bashing Donald Trump as a ‘wannabe dictator’ rises by Miami International Airport

Image via AP.

A billboard using Donald Trump’s own words against him is rising in Miami-Dade County.

The sign, which is being installed Friday morning west of Miami International Airport on the Dolphin Expressway (State Road 836), labels the President a “wannabe dictator.”

It suggests that being a dictator may be acceptable elsewhere, but “not in the USA.”

“Donald Trump, who repeatedly promised to be a Day 1 dictator, proves with every passing day and action that he truly is a wannabe dictator,” said Chris Wills, spokesperson and Vice President of Keep Them Honest Inc., the recently incorporated Miami nonprofit behind the sign.

“Our Members of Congress have a duty to use the checks and balances granted to them by our Constitution, to ensure that we will not ever allow in the USA, a wannabe dictator to take control of our Democracy, not even for one day.”

Trump did indeed vow to be a dictator on “Day 1,” but only for that day. In December 2023 comments, Trump said he’s “not going to be a dictator … other than on Day 1. We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.”

He repeated the promise later that month, telling members of the New York Young Republicans Club, “I want to be a dictator for one day.” And he’s reiterated it many times since then, including during an October 2024 rally in Wisconsin, “I only want to be a dictator for one day, and I’m going to close the borders and drill, baby, drill. And after that, I never want to be a dictator.”

Nevertheless, polling by the Public Religion Research Institute in April found that a majority of Americans — including 87% of Democrats, 56% of independents and 17% of Republicans — believe Trump is a “dangerous dictator.”

The “wannabe dictator” billboard, situated 3 miles west of Le Jeune Road, will be seen by many. Last May, Miami International Airport — the 10th-busiest hub in North America — handled more than 2 million passenger movements, and roughly 250,000 commuters use the Dolphin Expressway daily.

The billboard is one of several large signs that have been put up in recent weeks to energize South Floridians against Trump and his allies.

Unlike other signs Keep Them Honest has running, with rotating digital messages, this one is printed physically.

In late April, Keep Them Honest launched a billboard and digital ad campaign calling out Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart, Carlos Giménez and María Elvira Salazar for not standing up against Trump’s deportation efforts.

The ads also highlight Trump’s efforts to shutter the U.S. Agency for International Development and reduce the operation of Radio Martí, a decadeslong U.S.-government-funded station that broadcasts uncensored programming to Cuba, to the minimum required by law.

On Thursday, Florida Politics reported that the conservative One American News Network (OAN) was taking over Radio Martí.

Rubio, Díaz-Balart, Giménez and Salazar were also targets of another billboard and ad campaign the Miami-Dade Democratic Hispanic Caucus launched last month that derided them as, among other things, “traitors” to immigrants.

And this week, education, advocacy and journalism nonprofit More Perfect Union erected hundreds of billboards around the country, including in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, bashing the President and his Elon Musk-run Department of Government Efficiency for cutting funds and staff at national parks.

Juan-Carlos “J.C.” Planas, a Republican-turned-Democratic former state lawmaker who last year unsuccessfully ran for Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections, is Keep Them Honest’s President, according to state filings.

Keep Them Honest is a 501(c)(4) organization, also known as a “dark money” group because it is not legally required to disclose its donors.

Wills told Florida Politics previously that the group is planning “an unprecedented buy” toward its billboard and ad effort.

“We’ve never had, especially in a non-elected year, this level of investment into ensuring that the voice of the community that needs to be heard is heard,” he said.