The American people and the world have been asking if there is a method to Putin’s madness. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently announced his “special military operation” to “de-Nazify” a democratic nation of 44 million people. Putin’s “denazification” claim of the war is a big lie. No wonder Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is a Jewish man, asks Putin, “How can I be a Nazi?”
Thereafter, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine began in a way that appears to show the mindset of an apparently weird and unstable man. Putin has placed the Ukrainian people and environment under bombardment with missile strikes and rockets crashing into residential buildings, killing, and injuring peaceful and innocent civilians.
Ukrainian people, over one million, who are lucky to be alive, including immigrants and students from Africa and Asia, are fleeing into other countries as refugees.
Putin’s invasion even brought out racist treatment of black African students and immigrants and Asian foreigners by Ukrainian border guards, who let Ukrainians cross the border into neighboring countries but blocked black African students and immigrants and Asian foreigners.
Putin, who has now encircled the Ukraine, used Russian artillery to fire and blast Ukraine’s largest nuclear plant, sparking a fire and endangering the whole world.
President Joe Biden, who appeared to be using what I call “academic approaches” like economic sanctions on Russia, providing military aid and money to Ukraine, and crippling top Russian banks, with many Western countries and corporations cutting financial transactions with Russia.
Biden’s play-it-cool strategies with President Putin have not deterred him, and he has refused counsel from Israeli leader Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and French leader Emmanuel Macron to de-escalate the aggression.
As part of Putin’s apparent irrationality, what the world and the Ukrainian people need now is a leader that will inflict real-time consequences on him.
Say what you like about former President Donald Trump, like Putin has something over Trump, or that Trump is either totally compromised by the Russians or too friendly with him.
One reality is clear: Trumpian psychology as it relates to acting offensively and aggressively by countering Putin’s bitter and delusional behaviors would have been very swift.
Yes, Trump was recently seen complimenting Putin as “smart” because he viewed President Biden and his administration as ‘dumb’ for their softness towards Putin and letting him get away with this “travesty and assault on humanity.”
As part of his psychology amid Russia’s deadly invasion of Ukraine, Trump now describes Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as a “holocaust,” somewhat referring to Nazi Germany’s mass executions of millions of defenseless civilians under Adolf Hitler, the leader of Germany’s Nazi Party.
In an interview on Fox News, Trump said Putin must “stop killing these people.” “We’re watching a holocaust. “We’re watching something that I’ve never seen before. The way that they’re going to go in— they’re blowing up buildings with children, with women, with professionals, with people— think of just people. ” “They’re blowing up indiscriminately; they’re just shooting massive missiles and rockets into these buildings, and everybody is dying.” “But they don’t respect the United States and the United States is like, I don’t know, they’re not doing anything about it.”
Trump would have stopped Putin faster and quicker and he would have made it clear to Putin that if it is the language of force he understands, he will get it. It is very likely that Putin, realizing that Trump is far ‘crazier’ than him, would have called him out by reminding him of the illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Trump, unlike Biden and his presidency, “would have hit him (Putin) where it counts,” according to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
It is quite doubtful if Putin would have even invaded Ukraine under Trump, knowing that his aggression would have been responded to with aggression.
Putin appears as a man who doesn’t respect words, but respects strength, which Trump would have given him in an effective and decisive manner.
When Putin, in a dramatic way, ordered Russian nuclear deterrent forces to be alert, Trump with NATO or no NATO cooperation, would have reminded Putin that his words, which amount to Russia’s nuclear weapons preparation and readiness to launch are ridiculous.
Putin would have in a more dramatic manner seen Trump raising more threat over possible nuclear war. Trump would have reminded Putin that his country’s status as more of a nuclear-armed country and a more decisive nuclear power is “bigly,” a word widely believed to have been made up by him.
In a similar vein, Biden and other Western powers have imposed harsh financial penalties on Putin and Russia, which Putin has described as a declaration of war. Trump would have reminded Putin again and again that “all options are on the table” and would have given Putin a “final ultimatum” to stop attacking Ukraine or be ready for his visit to Russia and/or to fight.
One thing that Biden should learn from Trumpian psychology is that Putin is a man who does not really care about the polite game of diplomatic and financial tit for tat.
Trump will likely not go for Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy’s call for a no-fly zone, which could risk pulling America and other NATO states into direct armed conflict and could lay the foundation for starting World War III.
Trump may not be crazy enough to enforce a no-fly zone amid Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, but Trump is likely to tell Putin he would not take anything off the table, as such thinking would mean not being able to use things because they have already taken them off the table. That would be wrong.
Trump is a man who can use force as a last resort, whatever that means. I am not asking Biden to press the nuclear button. Ukraine has been outgunned and outnumbered by Russian forces, Putin is killing children, sick people, slaying evacuees, bombing private properties, and causing homelessness.
So Trumpian psychology is what Biden needs now, meaning do not take any military response off the table as that will be playing into Putin’s hands. If Putin continues to deliberately slaughter Ukrainians and destroy lives at will and make millions homeless, one possible way to apply Trumpian psychology is to opt for surgical strikes in support of Ukraine before fully deciding against a direct military response. Biden should consider committing American forces to provide humanitarian aid to the embattled country of Ukraine. If Putin and his forces are foolish enough to shoot at the Air Force airlifters and Navy aircraft, then he will have himself to blame. The choice is Biden’s if he chooses to use any aspect of Trumpian psychology.
John Egbeazien Oshodi, who was born in Uromi, Edo State in Nigeria, is an American based Police/Prison Scientist and Forensic/Clinical/Legal Psychologist. A government consultant on matters of forensic-clinical adult/child psychological services in the USA; Chief Educator and Clinician at the Transatlantic Enrichment and Refresher Institute, an Online Lifelong Center for Personal, Professional, and Career Development. He is a former Interim Associate Dean/Assistant Professor at Broward College, Florida. The Founder of the Dr. John Egbeazien Oshodi Foundation, Center for Psychological Health and Behavioral Change in African Settings In 2011, he introduced State-of-the-Art Forensic Psychology into Nigeria through N.U.C and Nasarawa State University, where he served in the Department of Psychology as an Associate Professor. Currently, a Virtual Behavioral Leadership Professor at ISCOM University, Republic of Benin. Founder of the proposed Transatlantic Egbeazien Open University (TEU) of Values and Ethics, a digital project of Truth, Ethics, and Openness. Founder of Psychoafricalytic Psychology. Over forty academic publications and creations, at least 200 public opinion pieces on African issues, and various books have been written by him. He specializes in psycho-prescriptive writings regarding African institutional and governance issues.
Prof. Oshodi wrote in via info@teuopen.university
