EditThe terrible twins: how Putin’s and Trump’s solo hubris are birthing a new world disorder
What binds the two men most tightly is the method they reach for when reality intrudes: authoritarian reflexes
History rarely serves up such symmetrical ironies. Two leaders, separated by culture, ideology and continent, have each bet their legacies on a single, catastrophic decision taken in isolation.
Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Donald Trump, four years later, green-lit the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Both are now watching their gambles spiral out of control.
And neither shows the slightest willingness to admit error.
Instead, each is busily constructing a messianic narrative that casts himself as the lonely saviour of civilisation.
Putin’s version is well-rehearsed: the West (and lately “Europe”) has always dreamed of Russia’s subjugation; the “special military operation” was a pre-emptive act of self-defence and spiritual redemption. Never mind the economic collapse, the international isolation, the demographic haemorrhage, or the fact that Ukraine still stands. The narrative is immune to facts because its purpose is not explanation but absolution. Putin decided alone; therefore Putin cannot be wrong.
Trump’s emerging script is eerily similar, only faster in production. Barely three weeks into the Iran war, the same rhetorical architecture is rising. This was not a choice but a necessity. Iran was about to “engulf the world in the worst turmoil ever.” Only decisive American-Israeli action could prevent it. The fact that the conflict has already killed thousands, closed the Strait of Hormuz, sent oil prices soaring 45 %, and triggered the first senior U.S. intelligence resignation in protest is treated as irrelevant detail. Trump decided alone; therefore Trump cannot be wrong.
The messianic framing is already audible in his Oval Office remarks and Truth Social blasts: he is the man who finally “solved” the Middle East while weak Europeans and treacherous allies dithered.
What binds the two men most tightly is the method they reach for when reality intrudes: authoritarian reflexes. Putin has had longer practice – poisoned critics, jailed protesters, disappeared generals who questioned the war.
But Trump is catching up with alarming speed. The resignation of National Counterterrorism Center director Joe Kent, who dared call the Iran war legally and intelligence-wise baseless, was met not with reflection but with instant character assassination from the White House. Dissent is recast as disloyalty; evidence is recast as “fake news.” The pattern is identical: the strongman cannot tolerate the suggestion that the strongman erred.
Europe finds itself caught in the pincer these two decisions created. The eastern border has been severed from Russia for a generation; cheap energy, markets, and a predictable neighbour are gone. The western border – the transatlantic alliance – is now fraying under Trump’s open contempt for NATO’s refusal to join his Iran adventure. The result is not neutral “strategic autonomy” but accelerating isolation.
Energy prices, inflation, and supply-chain chaos are already biting. The political consequence is predictable and already visible: far-right parties that promise simple solutions and strong leaders are gaining ground from Budapest to Paris. Democracy risks becoming a museum piece – preserved in statutes and speeches while real power migrates to executives who rule by decree and narrative control.
Inside the two great powers themselves the danger is even more visceral. Russia’s elite is fractured, its regions restless, its young men dead or exiled. The possibility of internal implosion or open civil conflict is no longer fringe speculation. In the United States the cultural chasm that predated Trump has been widened by a new war of choice; the Kent resignation is only the first visible crack. Both societies now contain large segments that no longer accept the legitimacy of the other. Decomposition is not inevitable, but the ingredients are assembled.
The deeper tragedy is structural. The post-1945 world order – imperfect, hypocritical, yet uniquely successful in preventing great-power war and enabling unprecedented prosperity – relied on a simple premise: no single leader should be able to drag his nation, and by extension the planet, into irreversible folly. Checks, alliances, institutions, and public scrutiny were meant to act as guardrails. Putin and Trump each proved those guardrails could be bypassed when a sufficiently determined man occupies the apex of power in a nuclear-armed state. One used a rubber-stamp parliament and a cowed security apparatus; the other used executive orders, social media, and a compliant base.
The method differed; the outcome is the same.
We are not witnessing two separate crises. We are witnessing the simultaneous collapse of the eastern and western pillars of the old order. What replaces it will not be a neat multipolar balance but a fluid, dangerous disorder in which economic pain, refugee waves, nuclear blackmail, and authoritarian contagion feed on one another. Europe, caught between them, will be the first laboratory of this new reality.
The uncomfortable truth is that both Putin and Trump were able to make these decisions precisely because their systems, in different ways, had already hollowed out the mechanisms designed to stop them. The world is now paying the price for that hollowing. Welcome to the age of disorder. Its architects are two men who will never admit they built it.
Caption: A view of a papier-mache sculpture depicting US president Donald Trump (R) and Russia president, Vladimir Putin (L) during the Fallas Festival 2026 in Valencia, Spain, 16 March 2026. The two-week fiesta features installations of papier-mache, cardboard, and wooden sculptures that represent both fictional and real people and situations. These sculptures decorate the streets and are traditionally burned on 19 March, the last day of the event. EPA/MANUEL BRUQUE
Updated: March 18, 2026 - 09:49
