HOW DONALD TRUMP SUCCEEDED AND VLADIMIR PUTIN FAILED

A comparative analysis of regime change, legitimacy, and contrasting military strategies in global power politics.

- JOHN DOBSON

US President Donald Trump (L), Russia President Vladimir Putin (R)

Call it Gunboat Diplomacy or Yankee Imperialism, it was an extraordinary achievement. When U.S. President Donald Trump stood before a throng of reporters at his Mara-Lago estate last week toannouncethat American forces had carried out a military strike deep inside Venezuelaand had succeeded in capturing and exfiltrating the country’s president Nicolas Maduroand his wife Cilla Fiores,shockwaves echoed around the World.

Trump was on a sugar rush when he told Fox News "If you could see the speed, it was amazing, amazing work by our military. No one else could do something like this". He confirmed that both Maduro and Fiores would face criminal charges and that the United States would "temporarily run" Venezuela until a transition could be arranged, hinting at deeper American involvement in the country's oil sector and political future. Donald Trump wants and needs quick victories and, in his mind,Venezuela is the quick decisive victory that he has craved.

By comparison, almost four years earlier and thousands of miles away, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin had seen his own ambitious plan to remove a foreign head of statecrumble as Ukraine's defences held firm. Putin had planned to install his close friend, Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, as Ukraine's new president after a campaign lasting no more than a few days. Putin is the godfather of Medvedchuk’s daughter, Daryna. Despite an invasion launched with force and hubris in February 2022, Russia never succeeded in capturing or killing Ukraine's President Zelenskyy, whose survival has become one of the defining narratives of the war in Ukraine.