[traceroute66]

> you neglect the fact that US corporations have some autonomy from the government

In theory.

In practice, Trump picks up the phone and say "jump" and the CEO on the other end says "how high ?".

And if you say no, well, we saw what happened when Anthropic said no.

[inglor_cz]

Do you seriously believe that if you ask Grok or ChatGPT their opinion about tariffs or the Iran war, they will simply regurgitate Trump's talking points because they were programmed so on the threat of shutdown?

People with no personal experience of an actual totalitarian system don't really know what they are talking about when it comes to actual information control and micromanagement by the government. Hence they make nonsensical comparisons with a straight face.

[traceroute66]

I am not going to post what I could respond on a public forum.

All I will say is that it should be perfectly apparent by now to any sane external observer that Trump does not play by any long-established rules or protocols.

An entire encyclopedia of examples could easily be provided, the most famous recent one being his phone call to FIFA about the red card suspension.

[inglor_cz]

Yes, Trump is quite an outlier in his non-standard behavior, I agree on that.

That said, Americans still enjoy very robust protections of freedom of speech and association, about the strongest in the world, and your SCOTUS does not seem to be inclined to hollow them out. Many of the pending lawsuits will end there and eventually bind this administration, plus the following ones.

This just does not happen in actual authoritarian countries, where no judicial remedy is available and the justice system is just another arm of the tyrant, rubberstamping punishments pre-determined by him.

Yes, I agree that vigilance about infringements of freedom is necessary, but the current US population is plenty vigilant. Trump is nowhere near as popular as, say, Erdogan is, and cannot simply raid offices of the Democrats and shut down oppositional media.

[nekusar]

No, he's not. He's more direct and brazen about it.

But he's doing the same culling, the same political demands, same everything.

Its just now in plain view rather than behind closed doors.

[sajithdilshan]

Exactly, people think that Biden, Obama, Bush, etc. are some sort of saints and Trump is the devil. All other presidents used to do the same things behind closed doors and Trump just doesn't care to hide it.

[dayglo]

They weren’t saints but it’s a matter of degree. When did Obama or Biden abuse their position to enrich their own families? https://oversightdemocrats.house.gov/trump-family-corruption...

[WarmWash]

If you're not kowtowing the worst possible characterization of someone, then you're wrong.

Is Trump a dictator with unilateral control? No.

Will you be celebrated for failing to recognize that? Yes.