“Trump may see himself as an American Putin,” writes Jelani Cobb in The New Yorker, “but Putin likely sees Trump as an American Boris Yeltsin — floundering in the complexities that surround him.” (Yeltsin photo by Shepard Sherbell/Corbis via Getty Images / Trump photo by Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
It’s hard to please all of the people all the time. But a piece by New Yorker columnist Jelani Cobb could offer some comfort — and joy — in this dystopian era, not only to beleaguered Republicans, but to millions of Russians as well.
“Trump may see himself as an American Putin,” quoth Cobb, “but Putin likely sees Trump as an American Boris Yeltsin —
floundering in the complexities that surround him.”
For those of us who lived through Yeltsin’s eight-year reign of error and its precipitous end, on Dec. 31, 1999, the script is already in. We have only to wait until New Year’s Eve for the rerun from the White House, with a few modifications:
“Dear Americans! I have made a decision. I am leaving early, so that the US can enter a new millennium of politicians with new, smart, strong, energetic people (who have agreed not to prosecute me.) I have signed a decree placing the duties of president on Vladimir Vladomirovich Putin. Farewell, and be happy.”
And here’s the tweak: Yeltsin’s exit line to Russians was an emotional “You deserve it.” Trump’s farewell to Americans? “You deserve everything you got.”
