White House hopeful Marianne Williamson compared President Trump on Saturday to the British monarch whose taxation policies precipitated the American Revolution.

Ms. Williamson likened Mr. Trump to George III, the 18th-century monarch who taxed colonists toward revolt, in light of the 45th president increasing tariffs on Chinese goods Friday.

“Well first of all, we have a little bit of a mad King George in charge of this country right now and his chaos, and what he’s done with the tariffs, and what he’s done with China, the instability of course is causing the market to go nuts because the market doesn’t appreciate that. The market likes some sense of stability,” Ms. Williamson said on CNN.

A self-help author and activist, Ms. Williamson, 67, is among the crowded pool of candidates currently seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination to run against Mr. Trump in 2020.

More than 14 months left to make his case for re-election, Mr. Trump has recently seen his approval ratings slump amid the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China that culminated this week in each country imposing heightened tariffs on products imported from the other.

Mr. Trump acknowledged earlier in the week that the dispute with China could potentially tip the U.S. toward entering an economic recession, albeit not without defending his policies.

“Whether it’s good or bad short term is irrelevant,” he said Tuesday. “We have to solve the problem with China.”

More recently, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Saturday that he plans to tell Mr. Trump to tamper down the trade war when the two speak Sunday at the Group of Seven Summit meeting in Biarritz, France.

“I am very worried about the way it’s going, the growth of protectionism, of tariffs that we’re seeing,” said Mr. Johnson, who is himself hoping to conclude a successful exit from the European Union and has said he’d like to foster closer trade ties with the United States.

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