@hightor,
Initially, I was a vocal fan of the fellow because I respected the stated rationale for his project - working to minimize government secrecy which often functioned to isolate and protect those in power and to hide the specifics of how they maintained power. I saw that (I still do) as a valid journalistic effort and one that held real promise through its potential effectiveness. It's first big data release that published a recording (visual and sound) of pilots in a chopper operating in Iraq killing innocent people was an important and valuable communication to the public of things they deserve to know and should know. I did not for a second accept the criticism that this particular data release "put other American lives in danger" and I still don't.
One reason why I held that position for probably longer than I should have was that
everybody hated and feared Wikileaks. Nations's leaders hated him, banks hated him, consulting/PR operations working covertly and in the service of bad guys hated him, mercenary operations hated him. He was gathering up, I felt, exactly the right enemies.
But the shitty aspects of Assange's personality began to emerge and I had to shift gears on the fellow. But his project - an analysis of how secrecy permits existing power structures to dominate and a strategy for discovering/revealing these hidden facts remain a valid and necessary project, I believe. The danger of this project though is it has a singular vector - dismantling power structures. What might replace them and how were never features of the project and were not the concern of most supporters.
And I'll add that there's no question Trump and allies desire only the pretense of a free, active and independent press. The real thing scares them because of what they will seek to reveal.