The difference being the Clinton email scandal was real, involving an epic misuse of a private email server to circulate classified information.
If all of this sounds eerily familiar and frightening, it's because Trump is clearly--and enthusiastically--blazing his own infamous trail of authoritarianism that already matches, and in some cases is poised to surpass, the outrageous conduct of those who came before him.
The story it tells is not, unfortunately, an April Fools joke.
The Roman example serves as a cautionary tale: their republic didn't collapse in a single moment but through a gradual erosion of institutional constraints and normative boundaries over decades.
Every week since Trump's return to power, he and his key cabinet-level officials have simultaneously escalated their political retaliatory measures against disfavored individuals, groups, and organizations--in virtually every instance in defiance of the law, the Constitution, and now federal courts.