Comparison to Hitler, Mao, Stalin? Trump says: ‘Sounds good to me!’

Donald Trump has enthusiastically agreed with a public assessment by a man he met while golfing that the “overwhelming difference” between the current US president and historical figures who incited fear – such as Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Stalin, Mao and Hitler – is that Trump is more powerful.

The US president reposted a short text in the early hours of Friday morning, in which the author writes:

“Historically, powerful people were characterised by brutal conquest and the fear that they instilled in the populations that came under their influence. Common names that would come to mind are Alexander the Great, the Caesars, Genghis Khan, Attila the Hunt, Tamburlaine, Napoleon and, more recently, Hitler, Mao, and Stalin.

“The overwhelming difference between each of the above when compared with President Trump is their lack of global reach.”

“Sounds good to me!” Trump wrote, naming the author as “presidential historian Dave King”.

King is not, in fact, a historian, but a Scottish-born businessman now living in South Africa who was previously the chair of the Rangers Football Club, based in Glasgow, which competes in the Scottish Premiership.

Trump seems to have first encountered him when King was caddying for his friend Gary Player, the Hall of Fame golfer, who was participating at an event in his honor.

CNN reported on Friday that Trump first mentioned the document in a March interview with the 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, which is to be published next week.

When the reporters asked Trump to describe the power he wields and his place in world history, according to CNN, Trump called for aides to bring him a two-page document he had received from someone he described as “a historian”.

Brandishing this document, Haberman and Swan reportedly write, Trump recited “the names of some of history’s most powerful figures, explaining how each fell short of his own power as US president”.

The leaders “maintained power through fear”, Trump reportedly said. “Who would ever do a thing like that? Right?”

CNN said Haberman and Swan eventually identified the “historian” in question as King, who told them he “had first shared his assessment of Trump’s power with Player and later explained it directly to Trump over golf in Florida”.

The book is based on more than 1,000 interviews over a three-year period. A review published by the Times on Friday notes comments Trump made during the same interview when he was asked to reflect on his legal battles and presidential campaigns.