When Donald Trump acknowledged in a Fox News town hall on Tuesday his intent not to abuse power as retribution against anybody, “except for Day One,” he was doubling down on a tried and true strategy of 20th-century dictators. As NYU professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of “Strongmen,” wrote years ago about Trump’s wild statements, he is “introducing an idea that is reprehensible to the values of liberal democracy, framing it as an off-the-cuff remark or even as a joke.” Meanwhile, she notes, “it cannot be unheard.”

The message is that his followers, like those in a cult, can experience power through their leader.

We’ve seen Trump retreat plenty of times when he got pushback for saying the quiet part out loud. Recall early in the Covid crisis when he said there should be less testing so public health officials reported fewer cases in an election year. When a public chorus of boos erupted, he said he was just joking.

It’s a common strategy for rising authoritarians to float “trial balloons” to see what they can get away, as Professor Ben-Ghiat explained:

[A]nti-democratic rulers have always “tested” . . . the public and the media as they consolidate their power, saying things that “push the envelope” against democratic norms to the point of raising the idea of extralegal or irregular action.

On Tuesday, Trump’s statement about dictatorship to his ally Sean Hannity drew applause from the Fox News audience that loves him. But whether his........

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