Trump Compared Himself to Mao, Stalin, Genghis Khan. Called Netanyahu a “Con Man”
President Trump compared himself to some of history’s most brutal tyrants and conquerors when he spoke to two New York Times reporters for a book they wrote about him.
Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan wrote Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump. And during an interview with the two, CNN reported about the newly released book, Trump showed them a two-page note from an “historian” who said Trump wielded more power than Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong, Genghis Khan, and Attila the Hun because his power extended across the globe.
The book also reveals that Trump called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “con man” whom “all the Jews” hated.
As The New American reported in early April, an excerpt of the book in the newspaper revealed that Netanyahu’s “farcical” briefing in the White House Situation Room in February convinced Trump to wage war on Iran.
Global Power
Trump’s claim that an “historian” declared him the most powerful man in the history of powerful men was, as is Trump’s wont, not quite the truth, CNN explained.
“Trump proudly showed them the letter, Haberman and Swan write, ‘reciting the names of some of history’s most powerful figures, explaining how each fell short of his own power as US president.’” CNN reported:
These leaders “maintained power through fear,” Trump said, according to the book. “Who would ever do a thing like that? Right?”
But when Swan and Haberman tried to find the author, it turned out, he was not a historian, but actually [retired professional golfer Gary] Player’s longtime caddy and personal confidant. The caddy told Haberman and Swan that he “had first shared his assessment of Trump’s power with Player and later explained it directly to Trump over golf in Florida.”
That longtime caddy is David King.
CNN observed that Trump posted the note on Truth Social on June 18 just after midnight.
“Donald Trump is, without question, the most powerful man that the planet has ever known — by a long way,” King wrote:
Historically, powerful people were characterized 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 Hun, Tamberlaine, Napoleon, and more recently, Hilter, Mao, and Stalin.
The overwhelming difference between each of the above when compared with President Trump is their lack of global reach. Their power was limited to restricted local areas (even though some of these areas were quite large in a local context). They had nowhere near the control over modern logistics, manpower, technology, and the global economic muscle that President Trump can enforce.…
On a final note, I touched on the president’s reference to William the Conqueror. William the Conqueror, who was from Normandy in France, only conquered one country, England (in 1066), and thereafter English nobility spoke French as their first language for the next few centuries. But William never even conquered Scotland or Ireland so has no significant historical value outside of England. If President Trump is the American Eagle, then William the Conqueror was merely a sparrow.
The note said Trump is the “first leader to be willing to use that power on a global scale,” which “makes him by far the most powerful person that has EVER walked his planet.”
Bibi the Con Man
The writers conducted more than 1,000 interviews during three years of reporting and writing. The book “contains direct quotes that they explain come from the person speaking, someone who heard them directly or from ‘contemporaneous notes, recordings, or transcripts,’” CNN reported.
Trump spoke to them “several times.” A key revelation: Trump doesn’t seem all that fond of Netanyahu.
Trump told an aide that Netanyahu is a “‘con man,’ according to the authors, who say that it is one of the worst insults in Trump’s lexicon.”
That’s not all Trump said when it comes to Netanyahu.
In September 2025, when Trump was trying to sell his 20-point peace plan for Gaza, The Times of Israel reported about the book, he exploded at the Israeli prime minister during a phone call that included Middle East envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who are Jewish.
“Everybody’s sick of you, Bibi,” Trump said:
All the Jews are sick of you. Even the two Jews on this call are sick of you.
“I’m the best friend Israel ever had,” he told Netanyahu “Everybody hates you, and I’ve stood by you.”
And that’s not a one off for Trump when it comes to dealing with the Israeli leader.
As The New American reported early this month, citing an Axios report that Trump confirmed, Trump exploded at Netanyahu during another phone call. “You’re f**king crazy,” he told Netanyahu:
You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.
Another revelation in the book is Trump’s bizarre, Midas-like obsession with gold.
The book, CNN reported, disclosed that “White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt walked into the Oval Office and found Trump ‘clutching a tube of superglue and attempting to affix gold decorations to the marble fireplace mantel.’”
Get Him
The writers also describe Trump’s penchant for vengeance for perceived slights. On one occasion Trump “‘began to muse about past grievances’ while in a meeting with several staff, including his powerful deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller and Boris Epshteyn, Trump’s longtime aide,” CNN reported.
That grievance was with an administration lawyer “who said the [2020] election was fair and there’s no fraud,” Trump said. “Who was he?” Trump asked.
Answer: Chris Krebs, who worked for the Department of Homeland Security.
“He was a bad one,“ Trump said. “Take a look at him.”
Miller knew what to do. He wrote a memorandum “unleashing the resources of the federal government on a man whose sole offense against Trump had been to attest to the security and validity of his 2020 election,” Haberman and Swan reveal.
