Ruth Ben-Ghiat

So that's even in my book.

But here it comes again.

So they become more aggressive, more imperialistic, and this turns more people off, actually.

Yeah, the best examples come from communism, the history of, including, you know, in Soviet Union, where they had, because it's like these kind of old relics would take office and then they would be ill.

And there was all kinds of Kremlinologists were scrutinizing every appearance to see where they really...

You know, were they really just falling over?

And then there's rumors even today of Putin having body doubles.

That comes from the communist thing.

But I found it very interesting.

The New York Times just published a piece on Trump's personality cult.

And in it, there's a kind of mention that Trump said that people who inquire about his health, that's a seditious question.

Because the more they get older and they have health problems, it's not good for their personality cult because one of the canons of the personality cult is that they are omnipotent.

They're infallible.

So Trump stole Mussolini's slogan, Trump is always right.

It used to be, il Duce is always right.

But he has to be all-powerful physically.

Or otherwise, they're very afraid that somebody could come after them, that they live in fear of people smelling a weakness.

And so I found that really, I hadn't seen that quote before, that Trump actually said that to inquire about his health is seditious.

And I thought, oh, check that box too, because that's how invested they are with seeming perfect, perfect specimens of masculinity.

So the ones you mentioned, but also finance and business, and they often, sadly, they have a record of, as happened with Hitler famously, but also Mussolini,