New York Times columnist and PBS News Hour talking head David Brooks loves himself some Stalin and Mao analogies. Back in May, he compared Elon Musk and DOGE to the murderous dictators. This Friday, he compared President Trump, the renaming of the Kennedy Center to the Trump-Kennedy Center, and “gigantic portraits” of Trump to the communist tyrants and claimed it reminded him of the “Stalin era.”
During a discussion on the Kennedy Center rebrand, host Geoff Bennett wondered, “Are we seeing an evolution here in how President Trump publicly asserts his power?”
Brooks agreed, “Yes, that's well put. It is an assertion of power. You think, who else has big portraits of themselves all over? Mao Zedong. Stalin. Authoritarian leaders know that a certain part of the population likes it when they see the great leader idolized and venerated.”
According to Brooks, it is not just the Kennedy Center, “I have a building right by my house on Capitol Hill, and it's Teddy Roosevelt and Donald Trump, gigantic portraits. And it does remind you of going back to the Stalin era.”
It is unclear what Brooks is referring to. At the end of August, the Labor Department did put up two large banners—one of Trump and one of Roosevelt—on the outside of their building, but they have since been taken down. There have been no similar news stories since.
Still, Brooks concluded, “And so it is a form of psychological amassing of power to turn yourself into a demigod. And I think, as sad and pathetic as he makes it, I think that's what he's trying to do.”
In the Stalin era, it was dangerous to be the first one to stop applauding the cult leader’s speech. In the Trump era, New York Times columnists go on TV to complain.
Here is a transcript for the December 19 show:
PBS News Hour
12/19/2025
7:51 PM ET
GEOFF BENNETT: Are we seeing an evolution here in how President Trump publicly asserts his power?
DAVID BROOKS: Yes, that's well put. It is an assertion of power. You think, who else has big portraits of themselves all over? Mao Zedong. Stalin. Authoritarian leaders know that a certain part of the population likes it when they see the great leader idolized and venerated.
I have a building right by my house on Capitol Hill, and it's Teddy Roosevelt and Donald Trump, gigantic portraits. And it does remind you of going back to the Stalin era.
And so it is a form of psychological amassing of power to turn yourself into a demigod. And I think, as sad and pathetic as he makes it, I think that's what he's trying to do.
