Fiona Hill says 'quite a few people' in the Trump administration obsessed over power like Gollum was with the ring from 'The Lord of the Rings'

President Donald J. Trump uses his cellphone at the White House on Thursday, June 18, 2020 in Washington, DC.

SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

• Fiona Hill told The New York Times Magazine that many Trump officials were "obsessed" with power.
• She compared them to Gollum from "The Lord of the Rings."
• She said also that the January 6 riot — Trump's attempt to remain in power — mirrored Putin. 

Former Senior Director for Europe and Russia at the United States National Security Council Fiona Hill said that many of the officials under Former President Trump's administration were "obsessed" with power the same way Gollum from "Lord of the Rings" was obsessed with the ring.

"We used to have this running shtick in our office at the NSC. As a kid, I was a great fan of Tolkien and 'Lord of the Rings.' So, in the Trump administration, we'd talk about the ring, and the fear of becoming Gollum," Hill told The New York Times Magazine.

Gollum, a character in the franchise also known as Smeagol, possessed and then lost what was known as "the ring of power," which slowly consumed those who had possession of it. Gollum often called the ring "my precious."

Hill told The Times that she witnessed "quite a few people" in the administration that were "obsessing over 'my precious,' the excitement and the power of being in the White House."  

More specifically, she pointed to "The ones who wouldn't testify in his impeachment hearing."

Hill also extensively brought up the twice impeached president's fight to stay in power in The New York Times Magazine feature.

She compared Trump's inciting of the January 6 insurrection was his attempt at being like Russia's Vladimir Putin — who changed Russia's constitution so that he'd be able to remain in power.

"I remembered how, in 2020, Putin had changed Russia's Constitution to allow him to stay in power longer," she said. "This was Trump pulling a Putin."

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