On this evening’s Hardball, Chris Matthews repeatedly analogized the Trump family to the Tsarist Romanov family that ruled Russia. Matthews ominously concluded, “we know what happened to the Romanovs.”

Of course, “what happened to the Romanovs” is that the Tsar and his family were killed by Bolshevik troops in 1918, during the Russian revolution. Nice analogy, Chris.

Matthews focused on the fact that President Trump views family members, notably Ivanka, Jared Kushner, and sons Donald, Jr. and Eric, as his most trusted advisers.

CHRIS MATTHEWS: It seems to me there’s always an element of almost Romanov absurdity, royal family absurdity, with the Trumps now. And the only people that the president can rely on are his son, his daughter-in-law, I mean his son-in-law, and his daughter . . . I mean, it is the Romanovs! The real advisors to this president, he’s saying, is the family—the royal family. . . . ROBERT COSTA: Kushner, Ivanka, even the sons, Don and Eric, they have the ability, though they don’t always do it, to weigh in on major decisions, domestic and foreign. MATTHEWS: And they weren’t elected. Anyways, it is a royal family. Thank you Robert Costa, Ann Gearan. We’re seeing this. We know what happened to the Romanovs.



