“The more difficult and bad they are, the better we get away.” In January 2020, during his first term, Donald Trump did not hide in the microphone of the American research journalist Bob Woodward his attraction for authoritarian leaders, including dictators. Then he speaks of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who rummaged the press and imprisoned tens of thousands of opponents after a coup attempt in 2016.
“I get along very well with Erdogan, even if he is not supposed because everyone says ‘what a horrible guy’,” he says. Before adding: “The easiest thing is perhaps the ones I like least, or rather with those I have the best.”
“Show that it is as strong as the others”
The US president told him on Monday, August 25 to meet this year, perhaps this year, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. A dictator who has already met three times during his first term of 2017 to 2021. “At one time or another, I will see it. I am impatient to see him,” he told the press, saying that he had an excellent relationship with the North Korean leader and knows him “almost better than anyone, apart from his sister.”
“Donald Trump has developed very intimate relationships with strong men. He likes to show himself with autocrats to demonstrate that he is as strong as the others,” said the specialist in the United States, Alexis Pichard, associate researcher at the English -speaking center for the University of Paris Nanterre, contacted by BFMTV.
For Yannick Mireur, an author specialized in American affairs, Donald Trump’s interest in authoritarian leaders will also be sought in their “trajectory and psychology.”
“His success is based on his career on reality television and the marketing of his own name,” he said. What to explain their interest in the “specific power” for authoritarian leaders.
By meeting Kim Jong-un, Donald Trump also expects, and above all, to resolve the nuclear issue in North Korea and act a peace with his South Korean rival. The two Koreas have been technically at war for more than seven decades, the conflict that opposed from 1950 to 1953 had completed an armistice, and not with a peace treaty.
“This is part of his fashion to obtain the Nobel Peace Prize,” judges the doctor in American civilization Alexis Pichard. “It is a communication operation that goes in this direction, even if there will probably be not a diplomatic advance.”
And what could be better in the eyes of Donald Trump, who hits the image of the outstanding entrepreneur to negotiate in a head. “His sensitivity to authoritarian powers also has a practical sense. The advantage of the self -critics is that there is only one person with whom to discuss. Everything goes through a relationship between two people as if it were a business,” said Yannick Mireur, contacted by BFMTV. “Favor efficiency.”
Before adding: “He wants to decide with the continuation of conventional diplomacy and ignore the sensibilities, historical nuances, as well as the institutional realities of his country.” He worries little about democracy or human rights. Hence his maturity also with the China of the authoritarian Xi Jinping. “I like Chinese President Xi, I’ve always loved him and I will still like it. But it’s very difficult, it’s very difficult to make a deal with him,” said Donald Trump last June while the two countries are in the middle of a commercial war.
“For him, Putin is a model”
Your favorite autocrat? Russian President Vladimir Putin. “For him, Putin is a model, he is the person he wants to become!” Judge in the columns of L’E ext, the American writer and commentator Robert Tracinski. Donald Trump advocates his male and virilist policy.
This fascination with the Kremlin teacher, under an arrest warrant of the International Criminal Court, dates back to several years. The real estate magnate already congratulated in 2007 in CNN his “excellent work to rebuild the image of Russia” and wondered in 2013 if he could become “his best friend,” the world recalls.
During his first term, and although the Russian interference is presented in the 2016 presidential elections, which will then be demonstrated, Donald Trump shows the Russian president “a complacency, a friendship that details.” “Americans do not understand, even in their Republican camp,” said United States specialist Alexis Pichard.
“I had so many connections and veneration for Putin that the media wondered if it was not a double agent,” he recalls.
Following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022, the Republican billionaire called Vladimir Putin as “genius.” However, this war has been giving a difficult time since the beginning of his second term. If you have recently shown weak discomfort against the warrior obstinacy of Kremlin, and has been around the threat of economic sanctions that until now have not seen the light of day, the US president continues to caress his Russian counterpart in the direction of hair. The proof of this is your meeting on August 15 in Alaska.
Between “Hand Tapotages” and fired in the presidential limousine, “the protocol was completely amazing and betrayed Trump’s sympathy towards Putin,” said Yannick Mireur, author of Populism Smart (ed. VA).
“Putin has been playing for months, we can see that he does not respect Trump, the meeting in Alaska has not taken anything except rehabilitate Putin on the international scene,” said Alexis Pichard.
Having White has not prevented Donald Trump from “wanting a beautiful photo of him and dictator Putin” a few days later, at the White House, notes on X the specialist in the United States, Corentin Sellin.
“Donald Trump, nationalist-conservative leader with authoritarian affinities, is closer to Vladimir Putin’s values than many current European leaders,” he said.
According to many observers, the 79 -year -old Republican has been “trends in self -criticism” since the beginning of his second term. If I had declared before taking power that would transform into a dictator “only the first day”, he launched from the Oval office on Monday that many Americans “would like to have a dictator.”
“I am not a dictator. I am a man endowed with a lot of common and intelligent sense,” he said.
Attacks against the media or universities, confronts the Supreme Court, a blow of force against the Central Bank of the United States … “He completely floats to the counterproductive and wants to break any opposition,” said the researcher at the University of Nanterre, Alexis Pichard. “Donald Trump establishes the bases for a dictatorial presidency.”
Source: BFM TV
