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. …