President Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform this week to praise a historian who compared him to murderous 20th-century dictators.
The president screenshotted a lengthy quote from someone referred to as David King, identified as a "presidential historian" which compared historic “powerful” people known for “brutal conquest and the fear that they instilled in the populations” during their reigns.
He did not give any further identifying information on who "David King" is or where he found the quote.
“Common names that would come to mind are Alexander the Great, the Caesars, Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, Tamburlaine, Napoleon and, more recently, Hitler, Mao, and Stalin,” King said. Ultimately, he said, Trump has a power advantage over all of them because of his "global reach."
"Their power was limited to restricted local areas (even though some of these areas were quite large in a local context)," said King. "They had nowhere near the control over modern logistics, manpower, technology, and the global economic muscle that President Trump can enforce.”
Trump didn't appear at all offended by the comparison. On the contrary, he shared the write-up with the words, "Presidential Historian Dave King — Sounds good to me!"
Trump has faced a number of comparisons to dictators in the past. Ironically, one of the most notable came from now-Vice President J.D. Vance, who prior to joining Trump's inner circle condemned him as potentially "America's Hitler."