The straightforward answer is that those supporting the autocratic authoritarianism want autocratic authoritarianism. They've been primed with anti-American grievance politics that condemns our societal institutions as some invading forces for decades, and want the simplicity of some big man with a big stick beating it into submission. They've just also been primed to believe that they're doing this for "freedom", so the more these actions reek of autocratic authoritarianism, the more aggressive in their rationalization they get.