I don't think they're portraying him as "hypercompetent".

Oh, they are. That's not their rhetoric, and it's not their intent. But by constantly claiming that a Trump dictatorship is a real thing that people should be concerned about, they're painting him as the sort of person who could actually make that happen.

Which is absurd. It takes enormous skills to convert a country into a dictatorship in general - and the U.S. would be an especially challenging place to do that. We have divided government, sovereign states (so that the federal government does not have monopoly control over courts or the men with guns), a prosperous economy that is mostly privatized, and a generally accessible democracy. We're not a country where ambitious men's only path to power or wealth lies with overthrowing the established system.

It would take even more skill for someone in Trump's position to do that. He has no background in either the military or internal security - and no real allies there - and having control of the men with guns is a necessary condition to establishing a dictatorship. His main source of power is his popularity with the masses - which works well in a democracy, but less so in a dictatorship where controlling possible rivals in the government is more important than winning an election. And most importantly - he's too freaking old to serve as a rallying point for establishing a dictatorship. You have to be able to convince powerful people to gamble treason for a chance to put you in charge for life - and that usually requires more "life" on your side of the equation to make it worthwhile.

And finally, he just doesn't have it in him. He's a bully, but a cowardly bully. He likes to gamble with house money, but doesn't stick out his own neck. You can't delegate a revolution; you can't just tell people that it would be nice if someone would make you the dictator. You need to be willing to walk into that beer hall with men with guns, and know that you will either come out with power or a bullet in your own head. And that's not Trump. If Trump were willing and able to be that guy, then his play wouldn't have been to publicly whine at Brad Raffensperger to pretty please find him some votes; Raffensperger would have been woken up in his bedroom at 3:00 a.m. by men holding a bag of money and a silenced pistol and told to make a choice which way he wanted to go. He's a Berlusconi who dreams of being Mussolini, but lacks the Duces to do it.