Now he is certainly entitled to his opinion, as any citizen is, but lets not conflate his rank with his knowledge of what threat Trump poses re: his comments about the media.

Unlike you, however, I see zero characteristics of him being an autocrat. I do see plenty of hysteria from the left about it, but again, I see no real evidence of it.  

For example, he was roundly criticized for calling CNN "fake news" a few times and yet in his last press conference he gave CNN's Jim Acosta the most questions of anyone in attendance.

That isn't someone heading towards dictator status, that is someone pulling back from it, imo.