Stilly:
I suspect Don's sentence should read "Asimov wrote The Foundation series (specifically Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation) [that] is frequently compared to the Trump administration, with the character of The Mule seen as a . . . without the punctuation and line break making it look like an attribution.

Yes, I considered that interpretation, but the writing seemed so clear compared to Donuel's usual gnomic, and heavily contrived, postings that I decided to take it at face value.