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Trump, Putin & Berlusconi and Their Controversial Comments
Donald Trump: His bumpy road to the White House
Donald Trump has his own share of spotlight and success in business and entertainment industry. But when it comes to his run for US president, Trump found more resistance than support along the way. The Republican Party nominee for President of the United States, Donald Trump has made numerous controversial comments and actions during his 2016 presidential race to cause him many hiccups along the way to the White House.
Recently, TV host Billy Bush was fired from NBC’s Today show following the leak of a 2005 video in which he and Donald Trump joked about groping women without their consents. Some argued it was just a "locker-room" conversation. But for someone who is running for the US President seat, a locker-room talk can blow up to be a big controversial debate. In a way, it still speaks volume to the character of Donald Trump and how he thinks of women in general.
Illustrated photo by Jason Nelms, licensed under CC by 2.0
Would this recent revelation put the Republican front runner Trump in a more shaking ground to get female supporters in this coming election? Or will this help to set him aside, different than all of his opponents, that he can be vulgar, outrageous, blunt and bullying but Americans might accept him as a fearless, reckless speak-his-mind kind of leader, like Vladimir Putin, current Russian President and Silvio Berlusconi, former Prime Minister of Italy who have been notoriously stirred up public outrage for their comments.
Donald Trump and Silvio Berlusconi share a common colorful and dominating public image
Donald Trump, from the start of his 2016 Presidential campaign trail, found himself compared to former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Both share quite similar roads to business and political successes.
Photo by Global Panorama, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Silvio Berlusconi is the 50th Prime Minister of Italy, served in four governments (from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011). The former Prime Minister Berlusconi is known to be blunt with his provocative comments, vulgar insults and sexual innuendo. Though as charismatic and successful business mogul as he has been, his actions and words are against himself, just like Donald Trump.
Berlusconi loves to glorify himself, convinced himself that he were “the Jesus Christ of politics”, “the best prime minister we can find today", and more comment like: “There is no one on the world stage who can compete with me”.
Benito Mussolini, the 27th Prime Minister and also the Fascist dictator of Italy during World War II was responsible for several war crimes, including genocide. Mr. Berlusconi talked about this serious crime as a joking matter: "Mussolini never killed anyone. Mussolini used to send people on vacation in internal exile."
In the wake of Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attack, Berlusconi, instead of expressing friendship and solidarity in the tragedy, had these words to say to the world: "We must be aware of the superiority of our civilization, a system that has guaranteed well-being, respect for human rights and - in contrast with Islamic countries - respect for religious and political rights, a system that has as its value understanding of diversity and tolerance...The West will continue to conquer peoples, even if it means a confrontation with other civilizations, Islam, firmly entrenched where it was 1,400 years ago."
Mr. Berlusconi’s private life is as scandalous and colorful as his political life, involving allegation of “Bunga Bunga sex parties” with underage girls and prostitutes. Berlusconi had this simple excuse: "I am not a saint, you've all understood that."
Donald Trump found a friend in Vladimir Putin, Russian President
The relationship between US and Russia is as tense as ever. However, there is one American to whom Russian President Vladimir Putin has been rooting for to succeed Obama for the President seat, that is Donald Trump. In recent revelation of Russian cyber attack, there were strong evidences to indicate Vladimir Putin helped Donald Trump to secure the win. Why would Russia or Vladimir Putin go the extra miles to help Donald Trump? There are many speculations and theories. But in this article, we just want to point out the connection between the two, based on their common characters and how they run their empire.
Photo by Global Panorama, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Vladimir Putin is the 2nd and 4th President of Russia (from 2000-2004, 2004-2008, 2012-present). In his political field, Vladimir Putin has found more enemies and opponents than people or world leaders who are on his side. You might have all read about the spatting war between former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Russian president Vladimir Putin. Here is some highlight recaps.
In 2008, when Ms. Clinton called out Putin had no soul. Putin threw back with this below-the-belt comment: “At a minimum, a head of state should have a head.”
In June 4th, 2014, Putin responded to Hillary Clinton’s comparison him to Hitler: “It’s better not to argue with women. But Ms. Clinton has never been too graceful in her statements. When people push boundaries too far, it’s not because they are strong but because they are weak. But maybe weakness is not the worst quality for a woman.”
Those comments were not provoked purely on political reasons. On many occasions Putin has belittled women, in actions as well as in his comments.
In 2006, Moshe Katsav, who was the 8th President of Israel from 2000 to 2007, was accused of raping and sexually harassing female subordinates. Later, in 2011, he was convicted to 7 years in prison for the crime. This was Putin’s shocking remark on the rapist: “What a mighty man he turns out to be! He raped 10 women. I would never have expected this from him. He surprised us all! We all envy him.”
Donald Trump: The candidate who promises to "make America great again"
We have seen similarities in personality and character among Russian President Putin, former Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi and now in Donald Trump, the prominent Republican front-runner for 2016 presidential race. In recent turn of event, Russian president Putin has endorsed Donald Trump for US president and gone as far as ordering the cyber attacks to temper with the Presidential election in favor of Trump's campaign.
Photo by Gage Skidmore, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
On glorifying himself:
Trump truly convinced himself and others around him that he is genetically superior. According to his biographer Michael D’Antonio, Trump and his son Donald Jr. are firm believers in the racehorse theory of human development in which you put together the genes of a superior woman and a superior man, you get a superior offspring. Trump was convinced that with his God-given superior gene will be able to lead America to the kind of kingdom Trump dreams to build, isolated from the rest of the world.
On being sexist, what he truly thinks of women:
In the book “The Art of the Comeback”, Trump’s take on prenuptial agreements and to him, women are all gold diggers: “There are basically three types of women and reactions. One is the good woman who very much loves her future husband, solely for himself, but refuses to sign the agreement on principle. I fully understand this, but the man should take a pass anyway and find someone else. The other is the calculating woman who refuses to sign the prenuptial agreement because she is expecting to take advantage of the poor, unsuspecting sucker she’s got in her grasp. There is also the woman who will openly and quickly sign a prenuptial agreement in order to make a quick hit and take the money given to her.”
Another post from Trump in May 7th, 2013, his take on sexual assault cases in military, he blamed on cohabitant, as to blankly point out that predatory behavior is inevitable, like animals. Quote from his post: “26,000 unreported sexual assaults in the military-only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?”
Even on political ground, he insinuated sexual context in his word fight with his presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton, posted on Twitter on April 15th, 2015:“If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?”
Whether Mr. Trump would win or lose in this election, he has brought himself to stand on the same international notorious fame as Putin and Berlusconi. Would this help or hurt his presidential campaign, we just have to wait and find out.
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