While admittedly, Donald Trump, is not 'officially' a 'Dictator' as the definition of such would define him if indeed he were so, he still nonetheless exhibits particular 'traits' towards such.
The Qualities of a Dictatorship
1.Ruler often rises to power out of conflict.
2.Dictators control all branches of government and the media.
3.Intimidation, murder, imprisonment, violence and other human rights abuses are used to control the population.
4.A cult of personality makes the ruler appear divine.
5.The ruler must consistently, and constantly lie to his subjects, and do all in his power to prevent his subjects from hearing or seeing the actual truth of any matter.
6.The ruler must succeed in turning his subjects against the Free Press, convincing them that they, and not he, are the real enemy of the people.
7.The ruler must constantly foment as much confusion, division, turmoil, doubt, and distraction among his subjects as possible.
8.The ruler must, by implementing these 'qualities', insure that his subjects over time begin to suffer from the 'Stockholm Syndrome', this in order to gain their 'trust', their 'loyalty', and that they now actually protect their ruler from outside harm. ('Stockholm Syndrome' is a condition in which hostages develop a psychological alliance with their captors during captivity) A victim does not necessarily have to be a 'physical' "captive" or "hostage" to suffer from this syndrome. It is enough that a victim, through being consistently, and over a long enough period of time, be relentlessly subjected to all of the above conditions.
Of course there are parts, such as 'murder' in particular, of #3 above, that trump has not stooped to, but then there are still certain 'laws of the land' that he cannot right now breech without prosecution, even though he has bragged that, "I Could Stand In the Middle Of Fifth Avenue And Shoot Somebody And I Wouldn't Lose Any Voters", which seems to show his mentality towards being un-touchable, not unlike an actual 'dictator' would boast.
Following below are certain ways that a 'dictator' would lean in order to 'stay' in power.
The Dictator's Handbook to Remaining in Power
1. You want to depend on as few people as possible to keep you in power.
2. You want the pool of people you could call upon to fill the role of that small group, that pool, to be as large as possible. That way, the folks who are in the small group that keep you in power know that if they are wayward, they’re easily replaced.
3. You want to tax the people as highly as you can because you want revenue to enrich yourself and to bribe your cronies.
4. You want to distribute the minimum amount of that revenue that you can get away with – just enough to keep your coalition loyal to you. You want as much of the money left over for your own discretion as possible.
5. If at all possible, you don't want to use the revenue to improve the lives of your people because a) it's more expensive than paying off a few cronies and b) see rule 1 – if the people are your coalition –i.e. the ones you've got to pay off to remain in power – your risk of losing power is much greater.
Our founding fathers were absolutely adamant that America not be ruled by a King or a Tyrant, and constructed our Constitution in order to prevent that very thing from happening. The term 'dictator' may not have been in their vocabulary at that time or no doubt it would have also been mentioned as a 'not'.
And yet, here we are in 2020 suffering a wanna-be dictator, a self appointed King who flouts the 'Laws of the land', usurps our constitution, 'rules' as he wishes, and has made himself virtually un-touchable from prosecution, no matter what laws or rules that he brushes aside.
In short, 'If it looks like a 'dictator', walks like a dictator, talks like a dictator, and smells like a dictator, then it's a good bet that it's a 'dictator', or at least in king trumps case, a 'dictator in waiting'.
:/
