Donald Trump – screenshot: twitter.com (2020)
He's a billionaire. He's is 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…
(Read more: Estonian Life No. 5 2020 paper issue or PDF/digileht)
Laas Leivat, Toronto