But the comparison is real. Trump said what he said. It echoed Mussolini. Trump does like the strongmen like Putin, Orban and Xi.
Trump does like too many strongmen/dictators, and for that reason I don't personally like him.
However to his credit he has shown some signs that he's not going to be a dictator himself. The much feared project 2025 that Democrats try to say he is the author of? Wasn't him and in fact he's compiled a list of the people who did author it and banned them from being part of his staff.
He's a narcissist, and as a narcissist if there's one thing you can rely on is if public opinion strongly opposes something, he's going to move away from those policies because people will think negatively about him and he absolutely doesn't want that. Hence why he acts as a populist. He finds the things that he feels people really want, and latches onto those issues, and to some extent it does feed off the prejudices of the voting base in a negative way. That's why he focuses so hard on illegal immigration.
He will also find positions that straddle a fence if he feels that that will be the popular way to resolve a dicey issue, like abortion. He appointed judges that struck down Roe v Wade, something that Republicans had wanted to do for a very long time, BUT, he did not press for a federal abortion ban. In a way what he did was a smart way of trying to play both sides. Repealing Roe v Wade turns the issue over to the states, where it's no longer in his hands. He can play pro life because he's had the single most impact on federal abortion law in 50 years, however, it remains legal in most states, and he can wash his hands clean of the issue unless a bill lands on his desk federally.
When asked about whether he'd sign into law a federal abortion ban, he dodged the question, something that a more convicted Republican who was NOT trying to play for what he thought was popular, or at least only concerned with what was popular in 1 party, would have said "yes I would sign it into law" without missing a beat.
Donald Trump dodged the question.
Why?
Because he'd veto it. He was pro choice most of his career until he switched parties. He's still on the fence personally even if he says he's pro life. He's "pro life" because that's the republican platform, he's playing to the Republican crowd and wants to fit in. So what he wants to do, is toss the Republican base a W by getting Roe v Wade overturned, but not actually push for Abortion bans personally. That's the winning position for him. What states decide is out of his hands.
Speaking of out of his hands, that's another thing that happened with the first Trump presidency. He actually did not do a lot personally. He delegated authority to other people to basically do the job for him, while he was kind of a figurehead. That's what he wants to be. He wants the glory of being president, but when it comes to the job, other people will do it. When he did try to do things, those same people restrained him. Same thing will happen 2nd time around. He won't want to actually govern and hand responsibility to other people, but those other people will hinder him from doing anything truly regrettable.
So while I don't like Trump personally, I anticipate it won't overthrow the nation and turn it into a dictatorship the way people fear it. I also don't think Kamala would destroy the country though I fear I'd really dislike some of her policies
Now Biden on the other hand.. him I feel was a disaster, the way he deals with Iran, the way he keeps goading Russia (eventually something will happen on that front and I don't think Biden is the man to be a World War III president), he got the Petrodollar Deal expired too, that's going to have impacts on inflation and the value of the dollar vs global currencies sooner or later., because he kept aggravating the Saudis over the Kashoggi thing and kept trying to make nice with Iran. I can only hope Kamala is not as disastrous as that. I don't think we'd have survived a 2nd Biden term though.