If a president really wanted to be an authoritarian, he might:

I’m sure there are more, I’m lazy this morning, so I lack motivation to go deeper. - Michael Smith

•  Force Americans to buy a product under penalty of law (Obamacare).
•  Engage the FBI to lie about a laptop they knew was real to sway an election.
•  Use a federal agency (OSHA) to mandate private company employees to take experimental vaccinations and force military and government employees to take an unproven vaccine or be fired.
• Mandate residents to remain at home except for essential activities (e.g., California’s Executive Order N-33-20, issued March 19, 2020, by Governor Gavin Newsom). He might even arrest people for paddleboarding alone in the ocean (Newsom), arrest a man with for playing in an empty public park with his own kids (Polis), maybe threaten people for sitting outside on their own front porch (Walz), or padlock public parks and fill up skateparks with sand when being outside was one of the safest places to be.
• Prohibit loved ones from visiting critically ill or terminally ill people in hospitals or going to funerals while moving sick, high-risk patients back to nursing homes with otherwise uninfected residents (Cuomo).
• Order closures of businesses deemed non-essential, often without clear criteria (e.g., California and New York enforced widespread closures, impacting small businesses), while allowing “big box” mega-corporate stores to remain open...

Much more!!