A history professor says that Donald Trump’s demise might already be unfolding as he falls into a trap that has dragged down other dictators and authoritarians in the past.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor of history at New York University, an expert on fascism, and the author of a book about historical strongmen, wrote in the New York Times that it was telling that when Trump was asked if there was anything that could constrain his actions, he said, “My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”

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Ben-Ghiat pointed out that Trump’s approval rating is dropping hard with all the unpopular policies he has implemented, even in the last month, including saber-rattling with NATO allies over Greenland, the ethnic cleansing and occupation of Minnesota, and the invasion of Venezuela.

“I have seen this brand of strongman megalomania and the adverse effects it can ultimately have on leaders and their governments,” she wrote. “I call it autocratic backfire.”

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She explained in her column that authoritarians build personality cults around themselves, complete with “propaganda machines” to “suppress news of their failures and exaggerate their influence and competency.” They only listen to “loyalists who praise them” and people trying to get ahead who know how to work their egos, while they refuse to listen to policy experts and civil and military leaders who could provide better advice.

And, worst of all for these leaders, they start to believe their own hype, engaging in bolder and riskier behavior while the population starts to actively dislike them.

Ben-Ghiat cited several historical examples, including Italian fascist Benito Mussolini, who made a similar comment to Trump’s: “I follow my instincts, and I am never wrong.” Those instincts led him to invade Ethiopia in 1935, which, Ben-Ghiat says, eventually led to Italy’s bankruptcy.

“The password among high-ranking Fascists became, ‘Tell Mussolini what he wants to hear,’” one biographer wrote about Mussolini at the time.

He then joined Nazi Germany in World War II, invaded the Balkans and parts of Africa as well as Russia, and lost Italy’s colonies, all against the advice of his generals.

“He spent his last years as the head of the Nazi puppet state the Republic of Salò, his phone tapped by the Germans,” Ben-Ghiat wrote. “He was killed by anti-Fascist partisans in April 1945.”

Ben-Ghiat also cited Russia’s Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine, which made him very unpopular in that country and cost the country a large share of its wealth.

“Now, it seems, it’s America’s turn to have a ‘Bubble Wrapped president,’ as The Atlantic called him, surrounded by sycophants who praise his judgment and fill him with a sense of infallibility,” Ben-Ghiat wrote. “Unlike Mussolini and Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump still operates in a democracy. He was unable to consolidate power before becoming unpopular, and he seems unlikely to recover his higher approval ratings.”

That doesn’t mean America should let down its guard. “It is well documented that strongmen are at their most dangerous when they feel threatened,” Ben-Ghiat wrote.

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