Well, it started with Trump labeling CNN, Clinton Network News during the campaign. Then once he was closing the deal on the presidency, he switched to calling it Fake News. I thought this was pretty funny since it was so unorthodox for a politician to attack the news directly. Then Trump held a press conference and finally he allowed CNN to post a question, but first asking why he insisted on making fun of CNN. Keep in mind that CNN was about 1 hour behind calling Trump as president, exposing their clear preference and lack of objectivity. So he then answered their question and then responded, "and you're not Fake News, your'e very Fake News" talking about the Russian influence of the election that has been spun in the 24/7 news cycle.
Do you think he will be an autocrat?
It's early days and the rest of of the judicial and legislation seem to be keeping Trump within the normal bounds of Executive Power. That said during the campaign, he did use the following quote from Mussolini:
Of course, it is a bit concerning of a great power leader quoting former Mussolini. The last leader that likely quoted Mussolini was Hitler. That being said, I did read "The Art of the Deal" and there's no racism in the book at all. He could have cleverly expunged his thought or he just wasn't so crazy in his statements in books.
Have you seen other cultural events about the rise of Trump?
One of the topics of the play was that originally the theme was a historical look-back, but after Trump used very harsh anti-immigrant language, he has hyped up the paranoia to muslim immigrants coming from Syria. So now the feel of the play is maybe of a warning to future generations to watch out for increasing paranoia.
An interesting thing he noted before his show was cancelled was that Sisi was branding onto any type of product: cooking shows, paper towels, underwear and even chocolate. He drew parallels to Trump branding many things and is now President, so a bit scary considering Sisi is a new dictator of Egypt.