President Trump has also waged a campaign against major media outlets, which he has said are overwhelmingly critical of him in violation of federal law. He has sued the New York Times and Wall Street Journal for billions of dollars, after settling suits with both ABC News and CBS News.
Last week, even some high-profile Republicans cried foul after Brendan Carr, the head of the Federal Communications Commission, successfully urged local stations to drop one of America’s biggest late-night comedy shows over comments host Jimmy Kimmel had made about Charlie Kirk, his suspected killer and the way Trump had mourned him.
The president then doubled down, saying networks that give him “bad publicity” should perhaps be targeted.
Amid the furore, Texas Senator Ted Cruz compared Carr’s threats against media companies to mob tactics, while his colleague Rand Paul of Kentucky called them “absolutely inappropriate”.
Some on the left go much further, however, drawing dark comparisons to 1930s Germany. “Trump is the Hitler of our time,” was one of the chants protesters lobbed against the president when he dined with aides at a Washington restaurant last month.
“Anyone who thinks we’re on the way to authoritarianism is wrong,” Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said this week. “We’re already there.”
The Trump administration says such warnings are not only unfounded but hysterical – the manifestation of “Trump derangement syndrome”. They draw a direct line between such criticism and recents acts of violence, including the killing of Kirk.
“If you want to stop political violence, stop telling your supporters that everybody who disagrees with you is a Nazi,” Vice-President JD Vance said this week.