In a video analysis of Trump supporters, the intrepid Vox journalist Joe Posner courageously treks into the hinterlands of Iowa and interviews a few select Trump backers about their views on Muslims and immigrants. Take, for example, a Vox profile of Trump fans throughout his primary campaign. It is easy to find evidence of the many media outlets’ attempts to place Trump support in this psychoanalytical light. Under this view, Trump is just a manifestation of a broader societal shift towards more change-averse xenophobic preferences on an individual level that enable authoritarian rule. One common approach to hinting at Trump’s authoritarianism has been to analyze his individual supporters grievances and dispositions to create a snap psychological profile of his average voter.
In general, there have been two interrelated analytical approaches that the media class draws from when its members discuss Trump and his supporters that can help shed light on how they understand a lawfully-elected president to be a rising autocrat. president of being or becoming a dictator should require clear evidence. In many ways, it is sensible to fear bombastic language from a man capable of unilaterally employing a nuclear strike anywhere on the globe. Unsurprisingly, the proclamations of authoritarianism usually come from sycophantic access journalists clutching their pearls talking about the importance of a beloved media and pop-academics in the American political sphere while simultaneously stridently avoiding institutional analysis. Those who assert the president is an autocrat do so by extrapolating meaning from a blend of credulous rhetorical analysis and two-bit armchair psychology. Donald Trump is regularly accused of acting as an authoritarian leader.