Where this was said
Regime Change Interview: Trump 1.0 vs. 2.0 and the Napoleonic Self-Image
At 1:06:15 · chapter starts 1:01:40
Tommy Vietor kicks off the Regime Change interview by noting the book involved over 1,000 interviews and is a genuine page-turner even for people who follow Trump obsessively. Maggie Haberman opens by stressing that this presidency is fundamentally different from term one: Trump is surrounded by people who have spent years thinking about how to use the levers of power, the Republican Congress is completely cowed, tech leaders and law firms have capitulated, and Trump is wielding power in ways not seen in American political history [1] — Jonathan Swan "He views himself and is trying to create this for himself as a capital G great man of history, as a sort of Napoleonic figure." 1:04:55 . Jonathan Swan takes the Napoleonic angle further, describing how Trump views himself as a capital G great man of history who wants to put his imprint on the world regardless of midterm polling. He then drops the most extraordinary anecdote in the book: Trump handed them a 2-page document in the Oval Office comparing him to Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Alexander the Great, and Genghis Khan on the basis of power. Trump relished the comparison and insisted a historian wrote it. The historian turned out to be Gary Player's former caddy [2] — Jonathan Swan "In the Oval Office, Trump handed Haberman and Swan a 2-page document comparing him to Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Alexander the Great, and Genghis…" 1:04:55 .
Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan conducted over 1,000 interviews to produce their book Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump.
Trump handed Haberman and Swan a 2-page document in the Oval Office, reportedly written by Gary Player's former caddy, comparing him to Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Alexander the Great, and Genghis Khan on the metric of power.
In the Oval Office, Trump handed Haberman and Swan a 2-page document comparing him to Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Alexander the Great, and Genghis Khan on the basis of power. He was relishing the comparison. The document was supposedly written by a historian — but was actually produced by Gary Player's former caddy.
