Trump's 'Great Men' Doc: Him Over Hitler, Mao, Stalin
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- Trump told "The Axios Show" in a 45-minute interview that he's found "no limits" to his power since the Iran war, saying G7 leaders believed him when he joked "I'm the boss."
- "Regime Change", a forthcoming book by NYT's Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, reveals Trump showed off a document arguing he is more powerful than Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Stalin, Mao, and Hitler, reading from it and explaining how each "fell short."
- Trump said of historical conquerors that "they didn't have airplanes" and could not travel the way he can, telling Axios that prior figures lacked the reach of the modern U.S. presidency.
- Trump named China's Xi Jinping ("all business") and India's Narendra Modi ("a very tough cookie") as the world leaders he most admires, and praised France's Emmanuel Macron for hosting him at Versailles — "my weakness."
- Trump claimed "if it weren't for me, Israel would not exist today," and said his relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu requires keeping him "a little bit sane," while dismissing Republican Iran hawks as hardliners he no longer respects.
- Trump acknowledged the economy is the one force that constrains him, saying he never wants to be "the late, great Herbert Hoover" and pointing to falling oil prices and a surging stock market as proof he made the right call on the Iran deal.
- Haberman and Swan report the "Great Men" document's author was a longtime caddy and personal confidant to golfer Gary Player — not the "presidential historian" Trump called him when posting the document on Truth Social.
Why it matters: Trump frames the Iran war's negotiated outcome as personal vindication, calling it 'unconditional surrender' and 'regime change,' and positions himself above every conqueror in recorded history — a worldview that subordinates alliances, institutional checks, and even fellow Republicans' counsel to his own judgment, with the economy as the only constraint he acknowledges.
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