The disastrous German Emperor who was a doppelganger to Donald Trump: Kaiser Wilhelm

I am presently reading Miranda Carter’s “George, Nicholas, and Wilhelm,” her 2009 biography of the three grandchildren of Queen Victoria who were respectively, the King of England, Tsar of Russia, and Kaiser of Germany at the time of the outbreak of World War 1.

I was gobsmacked by her portrait of of Kaiser Wilhelm’s character, for it is a virtually identical doppelganger to that of Donald Trump.

The best way to show that is via a few excerpts, presented with no embellishment.

First, a look at his “stable genius”:

“[Wilhelm] liked to think of himself as another Frederick the Great: politician, soldier, strategist, philosopher, cultural arbiter …. [But s]ome of those who had known him as a prince, however, worried a little about what kind of king he would make…. “He thinks he understands _everything_, even shipbuilding.” Bismarck [ ] muttered about Wilhelm’s inflated opinion of his own abilities … and his minuscule attention span: he would “take a little peek … learn nothing thoroughly and end up believing he knew everything.” “

(pp. 75-76)

“[After, In 1889 in an attempt to smooth over some family difficulties, Queen Victoria had awarded Wilhelm an honorary admiralty of the Royal Navy,] Wilhelm fell upon his new title as if nothing had ever given him so much pleasure in his whole life….. Even Phillip zu Eulenburg noted disappointedly that he was “like a child over it [the British naval uniform].” Wilhelm told Herbert von Bismarck that his British naval title meant that “he would have the right as admiral of the Fleet, to have a say in English naval affairs and to give the Queen his expert advice… [He] was perfectly serious in what he said.””…[Later that year,] Wilhelm put on his admiral’s uniform, flew the pennant of a British navy admiral, and invited himself — as a real admiral would — to inspect the British squadron anchored [off the Greek coast]…. In December, he sent [Victoria] a plan for the reorganization of the Royal Navy…. In 1891 he sent more “humble suggestions….”

(pp. 90-93)

“Wilhelm appeared unable to distinguish the trivial from the important — he’d spend hours looking at photographs of warships or moving the position of the smoke stacks on a new cruiser, rather than read government reports…. Worse, he was an appalling vacillator, changing his mind — he was often influenced by the last person he’d talked to, and constantly in quest of popularity — with such frequency that it drove his ministers mad and made the government look irresolute and confused. Chancellor Captivi  … observed wearily that “he often contradicted his official announcements and misunderstandings arose in consequence.” His  colleague Marschall, the foreign minister, was more forthright: “It is unendurable. Today one thing and tomorrow the next and after a few days something completely different.””Then there was his habit of making sudden rogue interventions, getting overexcited during speeches and announcing a new law that completely contradicted agreed government policy, or writing to foreign monarchs without telling the Foreign Office, or appointing someone completely inappropriate to a government position…. He was quick to resent anyone he felt wasn’t sufficiently supportive.”

(pp. 132-33)