Man baby Donald Trump has insisted he’ll only become a "dictator for a day" if he’s elected US President again in 2024, as we reported earlier this week.
But the wannabe despot isn’t the only tinpot tyrant to sully politics over the years. While monsters such as Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein are now notorious, we can reveal some lesser-known – but chillingly brutal – dictators from the past you’ve probably never heard of.
Here James Moore reveals forgotten autocrats who have been consigned to the dustbin of history… just like the orange one probably should be!
READ MORE: Inside Putin's £1bn bomb-proof limo featuring night vision cameras and emergency exit
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Bunker bonkers
Who: Enver Hoxha – Albania
The ex-teacher and Communist dictator, who ruled the country from 1944, banned religion, murdered opponents and put 200,000 of his own people in labour camps. Paranoid about invasion, he also ordered 175,000 concrete pillboxes to be built across the country.
By the time of Hoxha’s death in 1985, aged 76, Albania was the third poorest country in the world.
Sibling slayer
Who: Francisco Solano Lopez – Paraguay
After backing the wrong side in a civil war in Uruguay, in the 1860s, the South American dictator ended up going to war with not only that country, but its allies Brazil and Argentina too. Facing defeat, he had some of his soldiers shot to "motivate" others, forced children to fight and ordered hundreds of executions including his own brother’s.
By the time he died in battle in 1870, aged 42, Paraguay’s population had halved.
Football massacre
Who: Francisco Macias Nguema – Equatorial Guinea
An absolute ruler from 1968, he had anyone who wore glasses murdered, fearing educated types. His rule eventually took 50,000 lives.
Nguema introduced forced labour, banned fishing and on Christmas Eve, 1969, had 168 dissidents murdered at a football stadium in the capital Malabo. In 1979, aged 55, he was overthrown and executed by his nephew, Teodoro, who still rules today.
Barmy bans
Who: Saparmurat Niyazov – Turkmenistan
Niyazov ruled the central Asian country with a rod of iron for more than two decades, establishing a bizarre cult of personality. He renamed January after himself and replaced the word for bread with his mother’s name.
Niyazov outlawed beards, ballet, the circus, lip syncing and gold teeth, but did have a gold statue of himself built in the capital Ashgabat, which rotated so it always faced the sun. He died in 2006, aged 66, from a heart attack.
Medal mania
Who: Khorloogiin Choibalsan – Mongolia
Big pals with mass-murdering Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, he ruled Mongolia from 1939 to his death in 1952, aged, 56, from cancer. Choibalsan carried out purges of his own people and 35,000 people perished.
When he wasn’t brutally supressing the opposition, intellectuals or Buddhist clergy, the tyrant was collecting huge numbers of medals to pin on his chest.
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Total sadist
Who: Mengistu Haile Mariam – Ethiopia
Seizing power from Emperor Haile Selassie in a 1974 coup, the army officer set up a military junta, launching a crackdown on opposition groups that saw 750,000 people die. He even made the families of his victims pay for the bullets used to kill their loved ones.
Ruling during Ethiopia’s notorious 1980s famine, he finally fled to Zimbabwe in 1991 where he still lives, aged 86, despite being convicted of genocide.
Spooked psycho
Who: Francois Duvalier – Haiti
The ex-doctor became dictator of the Caribbean nation from 1957 and lived in luxury while his Tonton Macoute death squads killed off opponents. Nicknamed “Papa Doc” the voodoo-loving leader once had all black dogs in the country killed after fearing a rival had turned into one.
After he died, aged 64, in 1971 his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier, or “Baby Doc” took over, continuing the oppression until he fled following a rebellion in 1986, dying aged 63, in 2014.
God complex
Who: Rafael Trujillo – Dominican Republic
The egotistical leader ruled the country for more than 30 years, ordering churches to put up signs reading “God in Heaven, Trujillo on Earth”. He even appointed his three-year-old son as a colonel.
Trujillo ordered 35,000 people killed in a massacre – strangled or hacked to death with machetes. His rule only came to an end when he was shot and killed in an ambush in 1961, aged 69.
Fascist bootlicker
Who: Dome Sztojay – Hungary
In 1944, occupying Nazi Germany installed the ruthless Hungarian soldier as a puppet PM. He imprisoned political opponents and oversaw the deportation of nearly half a million of the country’s Jews to concentration camps.
At the end of World War Two the 63-year-old was found guilty of war crimes and executed in 1946.
Scrabble hater
Who: Nicolae Ceausescu – Romania
The Communist dictator, who came to power in 1965, built a huge 1,000-room palace in the capital Bucharest, while his nation was on the breadline. He banned everything from contraception to the word game Scrabble, deeming it dangerously intellectual.
In the wake of the 1989 revolution, the 71-year-old fled with wife Elena by helicopter. They were soon captured and swiftly executed by firing squad.
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