Another giant leap down the road to dictatorship:

Weaponize the levers of government for partisan political gain. Pressure privately owned media companies to toe the party line. Punish the owners who resist and reward the ones who acquiesce.

That’s how Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán consolidated control of the media in his country, according to scholars who witnessed Hungary’s democratic backsliding firsthand.

And Trump is doing the same.

Using legal maneuvers, financial incentives and public pressure campaigns, Trump is persuading companies to make changes that benefit his party and bolster his own power. Wednesday’s decision by Disney’s ABC to sideline Jimmy Kimmel is the latest example.

Not so much persuading as pushing and coercing.

Free speech groups like the ACLU warned that the Kimmel suspension is part of a broad Trump-led effort to silence his critics.

“This is beyond McCarthyism. Trump officials are repeatedly abusing their power to stop ideas they don’t like, deciding who can speak, write, and even joke,” the ACLU said. “The Trump administration’s actions, paired with ABC’s capitulation, represent a grave threat to our First Amendment freedoms.”

…

Disney settled Trump’s defamation lawsuit against ABC last December rather than defending itself in court, and Paramount settled Trump’s suit against CBS last July, even though legal experts said Paramount had a very strong case.

The president is now suing both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

Ask not for whom the bell tolls.