And he was convicted of 34 felonies...

The first time he was president his administration was staffed mostly with legacy GOP leadership. He also hadn't yet stuffed the federal courts with goons. This meant that he got pushback for some of his worst authoritarian impulses (certainly not all of them, but some).

Now the administration is staffed entirely with maga loyalists and Trump has appointed a substantial portion of the entire federal judiciary, up to creating a supermajority in the supreme court. The barriers are gone.

So now we get the white house deliberately messaging the suffering of others. Kristi Noem in front of prisoners in El Salvador. Tweets of people in shackles or AI images of people weeping while being arrested, presented to the glee of adoring fans. "We love hurting these people" is the message.