President Trump was boarding Marine One at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for a televised flight back to the White House on Monday when CNN analyst Brian Stelter called the dramatic images a “performative show of strength” from a president sickened by the coronavirus.
“This is the kind of thing you see from strongmen who want to appear to be leading — it’s a ‘Dear Leader’ sort of approach,” Stelter said, referring to the moniker of the late North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il.
Stelter wasn’t the only one to make the comparison in recent days. The actor and political activist George Takei questioned a lack of transparency from Trump’s physicians and joked on Twitter that his care was being handled by the “Dear Leader Cleanup Squad.” Rep. Donna Shalala (D-Fla.) ridiculed Trump’s appearance on Fox News with a doctor who vouched for his health: “What’s next? Is President Trump going to ask the press to refer to him as our ‘Dear Leader?’ ” Continue reading.