I think we've talked about this before but I really do not think Trump wants to be a "tyrant." He is an authoritarian through and through in that he wants to be the sole decision-maker, the big important boy who does everything and gets all the credit, and he doesn't want inconvenient things like Congress or laws or courts to get in his way or tell him that he can't do something. But he doesn't have any genuine desire to violently oppress people or instigate a reign of terror, for a lot of the same reasons you see all the "TACO" stuff: he's fundamentally a coward. He wants his face on Mt. Rushmore, and to be adored and worshipped as a great man and leader, and all of that stuff, but he isn't out there having his political enemies assassinated or dissidents tortured. That's why sometimes I think the Hitler/Mussolini comments miss the mark. He's not truly bent on turning our nation into an engine of conquest or destruction. He just wants to be able to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants to, and be praised for it.
Now, there are people in the Trump admin who would be fine with making him into a tyrant, with Stephen Miller certainly at the top of the list. if Miller thought he could get away with it, he would love to stage show trials worthy of Lenin or Robespierre, or create a modern brownshirts that go around beating minorities up in the streets. Miller and his ilk truly are "blood and soil" nationalists, and they've succeeded in getting trump to buy into some of their agenda, particularly in the realm of immigration. But Trump isn't really a true believer in that stuff, which is why you see Trump balk on mass immigration enforcement as soon as people he respects start telling him it's going to hurt the economy.
This is not to discount the real and immediate danger of a Trump admin. Trump's desire to be praised and his inclination to assert his authority are having real and terrible consequences, both immediate and long-term, and doing incalculable damage to critical government institutions. His administration, with the aid of the Supreme Court, could be paving the way for a real tyrant to easily seize power and do some truly awful things. And as alluded to above, there are some really nasty people in the admin who are being given a long leash to live our their personal white nationalist fantasies because their interests frequently align with Trump's and he doesn't care enough to stop them. But I just think it's a fundamental misunderstanding of Trump to think that he is interested at all in sitting on a pile of skulls or throwing liberals into concentration or extermination camps or something. He's stupid and fickle and petty enough that he could be manipulated into doing that by others - which is part of why he's such a huge danger - but it's not his plan or his goal.
Compare that to Vance, who is (1) much more intelligent than Trump is; (2) out there talking like a "blood and soil" true believer to whoever will put a microphone in front of his face; and (3) backed (maybe essentially owned) by Peter Thiel, who has some of the most extreme authoritarian desires you can imagine. I don't know for sure how he would act if suddenly became president. But personally I think there's more danger that he would actually become a true tyrant than Trump.
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