(Well, actually a longtime client who has become a friend over the years) made the Berlusconi comparison to me the day after the election. She was distraught, having lived through this already and seen the damage in her native country, and now seeing it in her new country.

'Five years ago, I warned about the risk of a Donald J. Trump presidency. Most people laughed. They thought it inconceivable.

I was not particularly prescient; I come from Italy, and I had already seen this movie, starring Silvio Berlusconi, who led the Italian government as prime minister for a total of nine years between 1994 and 2011. I knew how it could unfold.

Now that Mr. Trump has been elected president, the Berlusconi parallel could offer an important lesson in how to avoid transforming a razor-thin victory into a two-decade affair. If you think presidential term limits and Mr. Trump’s age could save the country from that fate, think again. His tenure could easily turn into a Trump dynasty.

Mr. Berlusconi was able to govern Italy for as long as he did mostly thanks to the incompetence of his opposition. It was so rabidly obsessed with his personality that any substantive political debate disappeared; it focused only on personal attacks, the effect of which was to increase Mr. Berlusconi’s popularity. His secret was an ability to set off a Pavlovian reaction among his leftist opponents, which engendered instantaneous sympathy in most moderate voters. Mr. Trump is no different.

We saw this dynamic during the presidential campaign. Hillary Clinton was so focused on explaining how bad Mr. Trump was that she too often didn’t promote her own ideas, to make the positive case for voting for her. The news media was so intent on ridiculing Mr. Trump’s behavior that it ended up providing him with free advertising.

Unfortunately, the dynamic has not ended with the election. Shortly after Mr. Trump gave his acceptance speech, protests sprang up all over America. What are these people protesting against? Whether we like it or not, Mr. Trump won legitimately. Denying that only feeds the perception that there are “legitimate” candidates and “illegitimate” ones, and a small elite decides which is which. If that’s true, elections are just a beauty contest among candidates blessed by the Guardian Council of clerics, just like in Iran.'
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/opinion/the-right-way-to-resist-trump.html?_r=0
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=8296258

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028294307
The how-to of dealing with DRUMPF (dealing him OUT), based on the BERLUSCONI experience
Re-post from Don Viejo's thread, for emphasis.

**********QUOTE*******

https://politicalwire.com/2016/11/19/trumps-secret-berlusconis/
[font size=5]Trump’s Secret Is the Same As Berlusconi’s[/font]
November 19, 2016 By Taegan Goddard

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/opinion/the-right-way-to-resist-trump.html
[font size=5]The Right Way to Resist Trump[/font]
By LUIGI ZINGALES NOV. 18, 2016

.... Mr. Berlusconi was able to govern Italy for as long as he did mostly [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]thanks to the incompetence of his opposition[/FONT]. It was so rabidly [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]obsessed with his personality[/FONT] that any substantive political debate disappeared; it focused only on [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]personal attacks[/FONT], the effect of which was to increase Mr. Berlusconi’s popularity. His secret was an ability to set off a Pavlovian reaction among his leftist opponents, which engendered instantaneous sympathy in most moderate voters. Mr. Trump is no different. ....

Unfortunately, the dynamic has not ended with the election. Shortly after Mr. Trump gave his acceptance speech, protests sprang up all over America. What are these people protesting against? Whether we like it or not, Mr. Trump won legitimately. Denying that only feeds the perception that there are “legitimate” candidates and “illegitimate” ones, and a small elite decides which is which. If that’s true, elections are just a beauty contest among candidates blessed by the Guardian Council of clerics, just like in Iran. The Italian experience provides a blueprint for how to defeat Mr. Trump. [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]Only two[/FONT] men in Italy [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]have won[/FONT] an electoral competition against Mr. Berlusconi: Romano Prodi and the current prime minister, Matteo Renzi (albeit only in a 2014 European election). Both of them [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]treated Mr. Berlusconi as an ordinary opponent[/FONT]. They focused on the [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]issues, not on his character[/FONT]. In different ways, both of them are seen as outsiders, not as members of what in Italy is defined as the political caste. ....

And an [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]opposition focused on personality[/FONT] would [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]crown Mr. Trump as the people’s leader[/FONT] of the fight against the Washington caste. It would also weaken the opposition voice on the issues, where it is important to [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]conduct a battle of principles[/FONT].

Democrats should also offer Mr. Trump [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]help against the Republican establishment[/FONT], an offer that would reveal whether his populism is empty language or a real position. For example, with Mr. Trump’s encouragement, the Republican platform called for reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act, which would separate investment and commercial banking. The Democrats should declare their support of this separation, a policy that many Republicans oppose. The last thing they should want is for Mr. [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]Trump to use the Republican establishment as a fig leaf for his own failure[/FONT], dumping on it the responsibility for blocking the popular reforms that he promised during the campaign and probably never intended to pass. That will only enlarge his image as a hero of the people shackled by the elites.

####

[FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]Luigi Zingales[/FONT], a professor of entrepreneurship and finance at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, is the author of “A Capitalism for the People: Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity.”

I love how this is coming to light now. As if this information wasn't out there before.

and saw the parallel early on. Whenever Berlusconi got in trouble he'd just change the law. I wouldn't put that past Trump.