strongman

That's why I flinched to hear pundits describe Trump as a "strongman," and even worry at times about the word "fascist," though I use it out of a commitment to truth-telling.

These glaring differences aside, Trump does seem to admire Xi’s strongman image.

The person setting all this in motion is a Harkonnen, a name associated in the movie “Dune”-iverse with violent strongman rulership and all-purpose villainy.

To scholars of authoritarianism, asserting a high degree of personal control over the military is typical of global strongmen in the mold of Syria’s Bashar Assad or Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But even a strongman may discover that there are limits to what he can do.