Trump embraces comparison to Hitler, Stalin, Mao: 'Sounds good to me!'
US President Donald Trump has enthusiastically endorsed a comparison between himself and historical dictators including Hitler, Stalin, and Mao, claiming he is more powerful than them.
US President Donald Trump reposted a short text early Friday morning agreeing with an assessment that he is more powerful than historical figures such as Alexander the Great, the Caesars, Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, Napoleon, and more recently Hitler, Mao, and Stalin. "Sounds good to me!" Trump wrote, naming the author as "presidential historian Dave King".
King is not actually a historian but a Scottish-born businessman now living in South Africa, formerly chairman of Glasgow Rangers Football Club. Trump first encountered King when he was caddying for friend Gary Player, the Hall of Fame golfer, at a golf event.
According to CNN, Trump first mentioned the document in a March interview with New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan for their book "Regime Change", an account of the first 14 months of Trump’s second term, due next week. The reporters wrote that Trump brandished a two-page document, reciting names of powerful historical figures and explaining how each fell short of his own power. Trump reportedly said those leaders "maintained power through fear. Who would ever do a thing like that? Right?"
The book, based on over 1,000 interviews, also includes other remarks by Trump. Reflecting on his legal battles, Trump said: "Essentially I won every fucking time. And I’m tired of winning and getting bad fucking press." Trump also considered making Florida Governor Ron DeSantis his defense secretary, saying "We need plot twists." At an Oval Office meeting, Trump reportedly said: "I’m not a big fan of Ukraine … except their women. They keep winning Miss Universe."
In another incident, press secretary Karoline Leavitt found Trump in the Oval Office clutching superglue, trying to affix gold decorations to the marble fireplace. Trump also chose to make Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s life miserable rather than fire him, saying: "I want to bust his fucking balls, honestly. What about that fucking building? Can we stop it?"
Trump’s enjoyment of being compared to dictators follows years of admiration for autocrats like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un.
