Trump and Putin: Mystery solved

Last October, in the midst of attacking Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, and Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump found a politician he actually professed to admire: Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin. “In terms of leadership, he’s getting an A,” Trump told Fox News, “and our president is not doing so well.”

Two months later, Putin returned the compliment, calling Trump “bright and talented” and “a brilliant intelligent person, without a doubt,” as well as “the absolute leader of the presidential race.”

The following day, on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” talk show, Trump extended the love fest, citing Putin’s high favorability numbers among Russians. "He’s running his country,” Trump told the host, Joe Scarborough, “and at least he's a leader, unlike what we have in this country."

When Scarborough brought up Putin's alleged killing of journalists and political opponents, Trump replied: "I think our country does plenty of killing also, Joe, so you know.”

What characteristic, you may wonder, explains the Trump-Putin mutual admiration society?

Skip ahead four months. Last week, Trump accused his likely Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, of playing the “woman’s card” to get where she is. “If Hillary Clinton were a man,” he said, “I don’t think she’d get five percent of the vote.” Trump questioned Clinton’s “strength” and “stamina,” and he chastised her for “shouting” (a breach of manners that Trump, of course, never commits).

Now jump back nine years to an infamous 2007 meeting between Putin (then, as now, the Russian president) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Having learned beforehand that Merkel was afraid of dogs (she was attacked by one in 1995), Putin brought his large pet Labrador into the room. Merkel froze; Putin smirked.

Afterward, Merkel astutely analyzed the incident. “I understand why he has to do this — to prove he’s a man,” she told a group of reporters. “He's afraid of his own weakness. Russia has nothing, no successful politics or economy. All they have is this.”

That’s not entirely accurate. As I pointed out in this column two years ago, Russia has produced a rich literary and musical heritage for centuries. But from Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky to Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich, virtually all of Russia’s great creative minds flourished artistically despite their government, not because of it, and many of them fulfilled their creative potential only by fleeing Russia altogether.

So credit Angela Merkel with solving this particular puzzle long before Trump ran for president, to wit: Ultimately Trump and Putin are two peas in a pod. When you have nothing going for you but your manhood, isn’t it reassuring to find some other would-be leader who reinforces your high opinion of yourself?