Trump and Putin – birds of a feather?

LAAS LEIVAT

He’s a billionaire. He’s called a narcissist. He’s fixated on virility. He uses vulgarities. His referrals to historic events are either distorted or outright fabrications. He revels in his macho image. He craves media attention. He promises to revive the might of his country, to renew its national glory.

We all can guess who he is. No, who THEY are. Is Putin really a Russian version of Trump who may be an American version of Putin?

There is a palpable basis for seeing the resemblance between the two. Trump not only bullies his opponents, be they GOP or Democrat, he has utter disdain for them. He belittles them with childish meanness. Putin goes even further – he has high-profile dissenters exiled, jailed, or assassinated as traitors on foreign countries. Although the White House reaction is not as harsh as the Kremlin’s, Trump has banished dissenters and aimed the treason accusation against apostates such as the whistle-blower. Both are power-hungry and are obsessed with the slightest criticism. Both handle adversaries with predisposed finality.

Trump’s mantra, ‘make America great again’, bespeaks of international admiration, power and respect for winners. Putin’ glorification of the WWII victory is his campaign of diverting attention from Russians’ grievances about corruption, poverty and gross violations of human rights.

They idolize tyrants, especially those that exude charisma and strength and wield unfettered power. Trump has quoted Benito Mussolini: “It is better to live as a man, than 100 years as a sheep.” He has admired the strong-arm tactics of autocrats such as Saddam Hussein, Moammar Gaddaffi, Bashar al-Assad, saying they might be bad guys but “at least they kill terrorists”, blatantly dismissing international accusations against Gaddaffi as a promoter of terrorism. Strongmen are admired because they have no reservations, no inner torment.

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