Constitutional scholars use the “autocratic signaling” when leaders test public tolerance by “just wondering” if dictatorship might be preferable. Trump did exactly that today when he complained about Illinois Governor Pritzker’s resistance to his plans for a military takeover of Chicago. He said, “A lot of people are saying maybe we’d like a dictator.”

When a president jokes, flirts, or wonders out loud whether Americans might want a dictator — even if he immediately walks it back — he is testing the boundaries of what the public, the press, and other power centers will tolerate. Dictatorships rarely arrive with tanks in the streets; they arrive when the language of democracy is hollowed out from within.

Minutes later, Trump signed an order criminalizing flag-burning with a one-year jail term, a statute twice voided by the Supreme Court. Such knowingly illegal directives force civil-liberties defenders to burn political capital, cast courts as deep state saboteurs, and stockpile grievances for future court-stacking or emergency decrees. The stunt also diverts attention from renewed scrutiny of his Epstein-Maxwell ties, a classic authoritarian feint: flood the zone with shit so critics chase the latest outrage.

From Rolling Stone:

It shouldn’t be surprising considering the praise Trump has long lavished on autocratic rulers around the world — from Russian President Vladimir Putin to Kim Jong-un of North Korea, or what some of his own former administration officials have said about him. John Kelly, who served as both secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and White House chief of staff during Trump’s first term, said ahead of the 2024 election that Trump “certainly prefers the dictator approach to government.”

“Well, looking at the definition of fascism: It’s a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy,” Kelly toldThe New York Times, when asked if Trump is a fascist. “So certainly, in my experience, those are the kinds of things that he thinks would work better in terms of running America.”

Previously:
• How Serbian activists used humor to topple a dictator
• Dictator Trump declares it’s ‘illegal’ to criticize him the way CNN does (video)

Ethereum Positive/Negative Sentiment Still At Muted Levels

In a new post on X, analytics firm Santiment has talked about the sentiment around Ethereum that’s present among social media users. The indicator shared by Santiment is the “Positive/Negative Sentiment,” which tells us how the positive and negative comments related to ETH compare against each other on the major social media platforms.

The metric separates between the two types of comments by putting users’ posts/threads/messages through a machine-learning model. Once they have been divided, it counts up the number of each and takes the ratio between them.

Below is the chart shared by the analytics firm that shows the trend in the Ethereum Positive/Negative Sentiment over the last few months:

As displayed in the graph, the Ethereum Positive/Negative Sentiment interestingly witnessed a plunge as the asset’s breakout earlier in the month took place. This would suggest that social media users weren’t convinced by the rally. The continuation in the run since then has meant that the sentiment has improved a bit, but it still remains much lower than the high from last month. Thus, it seems retail is in disbelief, despite the fact that the cryptocurrency is nearing its all-time high (ATH).

If the past is anything to go by, this fact could actually be a positive signal for ETH. “Prices historically movein  the opposite direction of retail traders’ expectations,” says Santiment. The analytics firm has highlighted in the chart some instances of this trend in action. It would appear that FOMO spikes led to price drops for the asset, while excessive FUD resulted in price rises.

“With key stakeholders accumulating loose coins that small ETH traders are willing to part with right now, prices are showing very little sentiment resistance from breaking through and making history in the near future,” explains Santiment.

In some other news, the Ethereum Futures Open Interest has shot up alongside the price surge, as analytics firm Glassnode has pointed out in an X post.

The Futures Open Interest measures, as its name suggests, the total amount of futures-related positions that are currently open on all centralized derivatives exchanges. From the chart, it’s visible that the metric has climbed beyond the $35.5 billion mark, which is a new record.

ETH Price

Following a rally of over 7% in the last 24 hours, Ethereum has reached the $4,730 mark, now sitting within touching distance of the ATH.