The first six months of Gaius Caligula’s reign as Emperor of Rome were successful and popular.   

After that, wrote his biographer, Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus: “So much for Caligula as emperor; we must now tell of his career as a monster.”   

The same could now be written about Donald Trump.

Gaius Caligula

Among his litany of crimes, according to Suetonius:

“He forced parents to attend the executions of their sons, sending a litter for one man who pleaded ill health, and inviting another to dinner immediately after witnessing the death, and trying to rouse him to gaiety and jesting by a great show of affability.

“He had the manager of his gladiatorial shows beaten with chains in his presence for several successive days, and would not kill him until he was disgusted at the stench of his putrefied brain.” 

Donald Trump has never been charged with murder. But among his first acts as reelected President was to issue pardons to his 1,500-plus supporters charged in the January 6, 2021 insurrection that shook the foundation of American democracy.

Dozens of them had prior convictions or pending charges for rape, child sexual abuse, domestic violence, manslaughter, production of child pornography and drug trafficking.

Donald Trump

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump made more than 100 threats to investigate, prosecute, imprison or otherwise punish his perceived enemies, including political opponents and private citizens.

To prevent this, President Joe Biden issued pre-pardons to, among others: 

• Former Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney;
• Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley;
• Members of the Biden family; 
• Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases;
• Members of Congress who served on the House Select Committee to investigate the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol.  

Issuing pardons to those who had not committed crimes to protect them from a vengeance-seeking President was an act unprecedented in American history.

Caligula’s egomania soon reached psychotic heights.

• He  gave himself several surnames: “Pious,” “Child of the Camp,” “Father of the Armies,” and “Greatest and Best of Caesars.”
• Flattered that he had risen higher than princes and kings, he began to believe himself a god.
• He appeared at the temple of Castor and Pollux to be worshiped as Jupiter Latiaris.

Trump’s egomania is literally stamped on his properties. Of the 515 entities he owns, 268 of them—52%–bear his last name. He often refers to his properties as “the swankiest,” “the most beautiful.”  

Among the references he’s made to himself: 

• “My fingers are long and beautiful, as, it has been well documented, are various other parts of my body.” 
• “I think the only difference between me and the other candidates is that I’m more honest and my women are more beautiful.”
• “My IQ is one of the highest––and you all know it.”

When Caligula wasn’t ordering wholesale Stalin-like purges—ranging from Roman aristocrats to slaves—he was setting new records for debauchery. 

According to the Roman historian Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus: “[Caligula] lived in habitual incest with all his [three] sisters, and at a large banquet he placed each of them in turn below him, while his wife reclined above. Of these he is believed to have violated Drusilla when he was still a minor.”

Trump has never been charged with incest, but he’s repeatedly made sexually inappropriate comments about his daughter, Ivanka:  

• “Yeah, she’s really something, and what a beauty, that one. If I weren’t happily married and, ya know, her father …”
• When asked how he would react if Ivanka, a former teen model, posed for Playboy, Trump replied: “I don’t think Ivanka would do that, although she does have a very nice figure. I’ve said if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”