Former Barack Obama adviser David Axelrod on Tuesday took an implicit shot at Sen. Jeff Flake’s (R., Ariz.) comparison of President Donald Trump to murderous Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, tweeting that it was an example of the president making his critics as hyperbolic as him.

A strong critic of Trump over his personal conduct and views, Flake is set to deliver a speech from the Senate floor on Wednesday that will liken the president’s attack on the media as an “enemy” of the American people to Stalinist methods.

Axelrod didn’t name Flake, but he tweeted, “I’ve been as critical as anyone of this @POTUS for his authoritarian impulses, including his war on an independent and probing news media. But Stalin was a mass murderer of epic proportions. Is that really the appropriate analogy?”

He added in a follow-up, “One of the dangers of @realDonaldTrump is that he prods his critics to become as hyperbolic as he is.”

 

I’ve been as critical as anyone of this @POTUS for his authoritarian impulses, including his war on an independent and probing news media. But Stalin was a mass murderer of epic proportions. Is that really the appropriate analogy?

— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) January 16, 2018

One of the dangers of @realDonaldTrump is that he prods his critics to become as hyperbolic as he is.

— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) January 16, 2018