政治分析師 David Rothkopf 表示，美國總統 Donald Trump 似乎正聽見身後逼近的「死神腳步聲」。

Rothkopf 在《Daily Beast》的每日播客中提到川普最近在 Truth Social 上發佈的多則貼文，其中包括一張 AI 生成圖片，畫面中川普站在已故總統 John F. Kennedy 旁邊；Kennedy 於 1963 年遇刺身亡，當時川普 17 歲。他還提到另一張 AI 圖像，以電影海報風格呈現川普抓住 George Washington 的手，畫面中的 Washington 似乎正要從 Mount Rushmore 的懸崖跌落。圖中川普披著一件在風中飄動的紅色斗篷。該影片標題為「Trump Washington: A time travel epic.」

Rothkopf 表示，這些影像符合川普一貫將自己置於重大歷史人物之列的習慣，同時也凸顯總統遺產在他公開形象中的核心地位。這種主題也出現在川普試圖把自己的名字放在 John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts 上方的動作中；Rothkopf 說他已經「upended」這座場館，而該場館通常會安排完整的一季交響樂、歌劇、音樂劇與戲劇演出。

“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.

“這是一場空洞的災難。前方仍然覆著帆布，因為 Trump 現在無法忍受看到前面沒有自己的名字，”Rothkopf 說。

“你知道，他聽見背景裡死神的腳步聲……而且他想在自己看到的每一個地方都為自己立碑留名，”他補充道。

另外，作家 Maggie Haberman 與 Jonathan Swan 在一位保守派播客主持人的週一節目中表示，很明顯，川普作為一位高齡且已進入最後任期的總統，正在思考自己的死亡。川普近幾個月來面臨多項公開的健康疑慮，包括手部瘀青，以及腳踝和雙腳腫脹。

"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.

2025 年 10 月，Trump 對記者表示，"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."

白宮對《Daily Beast》回應稱：“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.”