Political analyst David Rothkopf said President Donald Trump appears to be hearing the "footsteps of the Grim Reaper" behind him.

Speaking on the Daily Beast's daily podcast, Rothkopf pointed to several recent Truth Social posts from Trump, including an AI-generated image of Trump standing beside the late President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963 when Trump was 17. He also cited another AI image that portrayed Trump in a movie-poster style scene, grabbing George Washington’s hand as Washington appeared to be falling off a cliff at Mount Rushmore. In the image, Trump was shown wearing a red cape blowing in the wind. The clip was titled "Trump Washington: A time travel epic."

Rothkopf said the imagery fits with Trump’s habit of placing himself in the company of major historical figures, while also drawing attention to how central presidential legacy has become in his public presentation. That theme has also shown up in Trump’s push to put his own name above the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which Rothkopf said he has "upended"; the venue typically hosts a full season of symphonies, operas, musicals and plays.

“Trump probably, on some level, despite the fact that he’s a narcissist and a psychopath and all these other things ... has the worst case of imposter syndrome in history,” Rothkopf said.

“And he knows he doesn’t belong there. And so he’s like, ‘Well, look, I have the same job George Washington had. I have the same job John F. Kennedy had. I could be surrounded by all of these people,'" he continued.

“It is an empty disaster. There’s still tarps over the front of it because Trump can’t bear to see the front of it without his name on it now,” Rothkopf said.

“You know, he’s hearing the footsteps of the Grim Reaper in the background ... and he wants to memorialize himself everywhere he looks,” he added.

Separately, authors Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan said on a Monday show for a conservative podcaster that it is clear Trump is thinking about his mortality as an elderly president in what they described as his final term. Trump has faced several public health concerns in recent months, including bruising on his hands and swelling in his ankles and feet.

"I mean, look, it's not like Donald Trump sits around doing sort of therapy sessions with people, but he makes — he makes comments to advisors that — and to various people and associates and confidants that they all interpret as him thinking about his own mortality," Haberman said.

In October 2025, Trump told reporters, "I don't think there's anything going to get me in heaven. I think I'm not maybe heaven-bound. I've made life a lot better for a lot of people."

The White House responded to the Daily Beast, saying: “David Rothkopf is a far-left loser who clearly suffers from a severe and debilitating disease known as Trump Derangement Syndrome that has completely rotted his peanut-sized brain.”