He knew in September 2005 that certain iconic symbols in society can get away with anything: "I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. ... Grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything." ... January 2016 he described the same crowd phenomenon: "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK? It's, like, incredible."
Even if people get enough of Musk and Trump, the pattern holds true that if you can get yourself into the right area of the spotlight, crowds will flock like moths and people will be overwhelmed by the media power of a person... and laws, conventions, even murder will be allowed. The rules won't apply. And humanity is playing this pattern out just as it always has. What's new is that in the past 100 years we have had the ability to organize our history from all over the world and see that these social patterns of authority and power happen time and time again... but we seem unable or unwilling to stop from forming crowds and letting it play out.
With Trump, it was all so obvious he wasn't a earnest or positive intending person. He just knew he was in the spotlight that so many people would follow. For all our psychology therapists and other media stars, nobody could stop the crowds from forming for terrible outcomes or reverse the trend of accepting anti-science anti-truth nonsense. His pattern may mostly play out, and his health can't hold up forever... we are still left with the problem of what he has demonstrated is possible.