Trump's 'Historian' Who Ranked Him Above Stalin And Hitler Was Really A Golf Caddy, New Book Reveals

Donald Trump's claim that a 'presidential historian' had placed his power above Hitler, Stalin, and Mao has been traced by a forthcoming book to Dave King, a businessman known in golf circles as Gary Player's longtime caddy and confidant.

The episode, first disclosed in a CNN report based on Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan's forthcoming book, Regime Change, turns a bizarre piece of presidential self-mythology into a question about sourcing, flattery, and political power. Trump promoted the document on his Truth Social account with the line, 'Presidential Historian Dave King - Sounds good to me!'

The Document Trump Promoted

The document, attributed to 'Dave King', compares Trump with figures associated with conquest and mass violence. It names Alexander the Great, the Caesars, Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, Napoleon, Hitler, Mao, and Stalin, then argues that the key difference is Trump's 'global reach.'

According to text published from the post by The Daily Beast, King wrote that earlier rulers lacked the 'control over modern logistics, manpower, technology, and the global economic muscle that President Trump can enforce.'

Trump appeared to embrace the premise that the document made him historically singular, even as the comparison invoked dictators and warlords whose names usually appear in public life as warnings, not compliments.

CNN's account says the document was not the work of an academic historian. Haberman and Swan identify King as a 70-year-old South African-based businessman who had caddied for Player, the South African golf great who won three Masters titles and remains a ceremonial figure at Augusta National.

The identification was also repeated in AP's account of Regime Change, which said the book includes Trump's anecdote involving a supposed historian who turned out to be a golf caddy.

Dave King's Golf And Business Background

King is not an obscure figure in sport. He is widely identified as David Cunningham King, the Scottish-born, South African-based businessman who became chairman of Rangers Football Club in 2015 and stepped down in 2020. Public records and long-running sports coverage describe him as a businessman, investor, and former football chairman, not as a professional historian.

His link to Player is also documented outside the Trump episode. Scottish coverage of the 2026 Masters described King carrying Player's bag during the tournament's honorary starters ceremony, while earlier biographical accounts have described him as a close friend and occasional caddy for Player.

That background is consistent with the CNN book excerpt's description, although it does not independently prove the private route by which the Trump document reached the president.

The distinction matters. A caddy can know a golfer intimately and still have no recognised authority to rank world leaders. A businessman can write an admiring political essay and still lack the professional standing implied by the title 'presidential historian.' Trump's framing gave King's document a credibility that the available record does not substantiate.

What Regime Change Adds To The Record

Regime Change is a pre-publication account of Trump's second presidency by Haberman and Swan, two New York Times reporters with long records covering Trump and his advisers. The AP, which reviewed the book before publication, reported that it portrays Trump as more emboldened in a second term and more willing to test the limits of executive power. CNN's exclusive excerpt adds a narrower detail: Trump allegedly presented King's historical assessment to the authors, and King later said he had first shared it with Player before explaining it to Trump over golf in Florida.

That sequence is important because it shifts the story from a viral Truth Social oddity to a reported chain of custody. It suggests that the paper was not merely a stray online post that Trump found and reposted. Instead, according to the book account, it had already entered Trump's orbit through golf, personal access, and praise.

The available evidence also shows what remains unverified. The public does not yet have the full book text, the complete two-page document, a public archive of the exact Truth Social post with full metadata, or a direct public interview transcript released by King.

The controversy is not only about whether King was a caddy. It is about how authority is manufactured around Trump. By calling King a 'presidential historian', Trump attached institutional weight to a piece of praise that compared him with some of the most destructive rulers in modern and ancient history. The label made the document sound like scholarly judgment, even though the reporting identifies the author through golf and business ties.

The comparison also fits a pattern in which Trump prizes personal loyalty and dramatic assertions of strength. CNN's excerpt, AP's review, and Axios reporting on pre-publication tensions around Regime Change all place the anecdote inside a larger portrait of a president drawn to expansive claims about executive power.

That context does not prove every anecdote in the book, but it explains why the King document became politically resonant.