He is literally flooding the zone, and it is working because we fall for the bait every time. This is how he manages to skate on the more odious actions, because until someone actually gets killed the public is desensitized to all the shrill "he's ending democracy" claims that sound faintly similar to, and about as credible as his claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
The authoritarism has been slow but very real, democracy has been in danger and goes to a more precarious place with each passing day. It's very credible, and of course people don't want to listen because it sucks. Who wants to hear bad news? It's very basic human behavior.
