Is Donald Trump the USA’s Gorbachev?

One fermented the breakup of a nation, the other was Russian

From 1922 to its demise in 1991, the USSR went toe-to-toe with the USA. While America floundered in Vietnam, the communists grew — its neighbours falling like dominos.

At its peak, the Soviet Union stretched over 22 million square km, the world’s largest nation. Militarily, athletically, economically*, and culturally, it posed an existential threat to the USA.

And yet, the central planning system comes with an Achille’s heel — in Russia, a small group of individuals were in charge of all decisions.

This put tremendous weight on the role of leadership. If you could take down the top, the system would fall like a house of cards.

As Gorbachev was for the USSR, Could Trump be America’s nadir?

Gorbachev

When Gorbachev came to power, his CV spoke of what it meant to be Soviet. He was the son of a farmer — a heartland party man who rose through the ranks.

Soviet leadership development was complex. The factional wars of Moscow akin to 4D chess. By the early 1980s the diverse views, whether Trotskyites or Leninists, had been hammered into a narrow worldview, not helped by the memory of Stalin’s purges.

Stalin’s successor, Brezhnev (1964–82), managed to achieve some consensus, but it became clear that those that followed, the short-lived Andropov and…