Yuri Kobzar17:09, 13.01.25

Despite all the differences between the two countries and their leaders, Trump and Putin have very similar worldviews.

The rhetoric of US President-elect Donald Trump, especially his territorial claims against his allies , is too reminiscent of Moscow’s rhetoric. Bloomberg columnist Mark Champion does not rule out that Trump may indeed try to govern America the way Putin governs Russia.

The columnist identifies three defining characteristics of “Putinism”:

• a profound disregard for democratic limitations in government and for social liberalism, and instead an attitude towards power as a personal legacy;
• mafia thinking, in which relationships are built on the principles of personal attachment;
• the belief that the world order of the last 30 years after the Cold War was a random aberration and that everything is now returning to the usual “war of all against all”, where great powers dominate entire regions, considering them as their own spheres of influence or even possessions.

The columnist notes that despite their completely different biographies, Trump and Putin have a similar worldview. Like the Russian dictator, the newly elected US president despises the principles of democracy, values ​​personal loyalty above all other qualities, is a nationalist in the broad sense, considers liberals and multilateral international institutions his enemies, and considers the international order that emerged after the Cold War to be dead.

Acting in this logic, Putin is trying to subjugate and place post-Soviet countries, including Ukraine, into the Russian sphere of influence. For Trump, the same with Canada, Greenland, Mexico and Panama.

Mark Champion does not believe that Putin and Trump act in concert, although he does not rule out either their friendship or conflict between them. “But it is obvious that Trump, like Putin, senses weakness in those sitting across the negotiating table from him. And compared to the US, Canada, Europe and Panama are weak,” the columnist writes.

The analyst doubts that Trump is really ready to use the army to fulfill his whims, because the US has a much better instrument of coercion – economic.

“This kind of coercion is also right out of Putin’s playbook. Perhaps the best lesson Trump could take from the Kremlin is to take a long, hard look at how all these trade and energy offensives have worked out for the Russian strongman,” the columnist concludes.

Trump has begun to put pressure on friends and enemies of the United States

As UNIAN reported, Donald Trump announced his intention to seek American control over Greenland and the Panama Canal. At the same time, he did not rule out the possibility of using force . He also half-jokingly said that Canada should become the 51st state of the United States.

Trump also issued an ultimatum to Hamas : If the Palestinian movement does not release all hostages taken during the October 2023 attack on Israel, then the US under Trump will unleash “hell” on the Middle East.

(C)UNIAN 2025