Mr. Trump seems to think like a television producer, a trait recently criticized by Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee. And as the makers of political thrillers like “House of Cards” and “Scandal” know all too well, television must ratchet up the stakes lest viewers lose interest.

The president has already called the news media “the enemy of the American people,” and his tweets about “fake news,” once a reliable prompter of fury, increasingly feel like a part of Washington’s white noise.

“What else could he say that he hasn’t already said?” Bob Schieffer, the broadcasting eminence who formerly anchored “CBS Evening News” and hosted “Face the Nation,” said in an interview on Thursday.

Seen-it-all veterans may take Mr. Trump’s recent statements with a few grains of salt. But two former White House officials turned pundits, David Axelrod and Robert Reich, warned of creeping autocracy. And advocacy groups like the Committee to Protect Journalists were moved to point out that such words, issued from the presidential pulpit, can embolden dictators who are more empowered than Mr. Trump to shape or censor coverage.

In an instance of irony that Mr. Baker might appreciate, Mr. Trump’s State Department issued a pro-media statement — around the time that the president was jabbing NBC — that condemned Turkish authorities who had sentenced a Wall Street Journal reporter to prison.