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Imran Khan is one of many leaders around the world following the successful format of the hit show called ‘The Trump Presidency’.
This is one of the many remarks made by Trevor Noah recently in his show. The comparison made between Donald Trump and Imran Khan left the South African comedian/TV host in a bit of a pickle, after this comparison. Trevor faced a lot of backlash from not just Pakistanis surprisingly, but by many in the Gulf, India, England as well. If you ask me, Trevor had it coming not because he compared a popular leader like Imran Khan with Trump but he made the ultimate mistake of not backing it up with hardcore proof.
Trevor made the point that just like Trump, Imran Khan too has a very nationalist view and is a far right wing leader who likes trump follows the same format of Nationalism. However this not the case. Trump is a capitalist and a good businessman there is no denying that fact. What Trump did is, what marketing students call ‘finding a gap in the market’. Trump’s nationalistic policy is a pure case of demand and supply. Trump by the help of market research firms and his own good gut feeling found out a gap in the market. He found out what’s going on in the mind of the American voter and exploited it. This is what he uses to call during the elections as the ‘silent majority’ which supports him.
Now! Let’s compare this with Imran Khan. He didn’t exploit any segment or gap in the market. He simply filled a vacuum that was present in the Pakistani political arena, and that was a vacuum of a leader. This vacuum grew, especially after Benazir’s death. You must be wondering these both things sound awfully similar, yes they do a gap in the market and filling a vacuum may sound the same thing but these two things are separated by one defining principal and that is INTENTION. Trump’s policy is more of an exploitive one whereas Imran Khan is more focused on ideology.
See Trevor’s video here.
Secondly, Trump claims to be against the lobbyists that work in Washington but, Trump himself was or still is a lobbyist and has benefitted from it, from the start of his career all the way up to grab a seat in the Republican Party. Imran Khan, on the other hand, is a pure outsider and has never been a lobbyist.
Trump and the American establishment don’t get along well. I mean, this is probably the first time you’ll hear this out. An American president and the American establishment are not on the same page. This would be true for Pakistan too but only before the Elections when PML-N was in the government. One of the few advantages for Imran Khan, unlike Trump, is that the establishment and Imran Khan are both on the same page.
Furthermore, Trump talks about fighting and bringing down the status quo. The few rich who have benefitted out of the system but wait. He’s part of the status quo so was his father before him and now his daughter and sons take care of the family business. Not sure which status quo he is talking about. And the other hand Imran Khan isn’t a rich businessman and his policy to fight the status quo was the main source of him winning the elections in the first place. Trump has a more exclusive foreign policy whereas Imran Khan has a more inclusive one.
However, there may be some similarities between Trump and Imran but they in no circumstances outweigh the differences between the two. For instance, Trump and Imran Khan have both accused media houses in their country to be working on the status quo’s agenda, the famous “Fake news” that Trump uses for CNN and other media houses. Khan too has accused the same of Geo News.
Now, the controversial bit. Both Trump and Imran Khan have been criticised for their mistreatment towards women. For President Trump, it’s no secret that how Trump has behaved in the past towards women. The same is said about Imran Khan although, not proven and are only allegations. Another thing that they share is that Both have books published against them.
Coming back to the point which Trevor made about Trump’s format being followed across the world. Yes, Trevor, a format is being followed there’s no doubt about that but not a one given by Trump. This has to do more with the new global order replacing the old one. The world is changing and so are the leaders in it. The world now sees a trend of more strong leaders. Leaders who have a more autocratic style of leadership, leaders with a more nationalistic approach, leaders like Vladimir Putin, MODI, Tayeb Erdogan, the Chinese president, the North Korean leader, Donald Trump and the list goes on.
