At first glance, Donald Trump and Muhammad Yunus – the de facto head of Bangladesh’s government since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was overthrown six months ago – have very little in common. Yunus won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his pioneering work on microcredit. Trump has bitterly complained about not winning one. Yunus’ businesses have revolved around empowering millions of Bangladeshis, especially poor women. Trump has been described as an “unscrupulous landlord” who built his empire on racial discrimination and strong-arming, not to mention outright fraud. And let us not forget, landslide or not, Trump was elected to office while Yunus remains untested politically, his indefinitely “interim” “chief adviser” role largely secured through the backing of the Bangladesh military.
And yet, the two elderly revolutionaries – Yunus ostensibly on the left, and Trump on the right – are quite similar, both in terms of their political trajectories and how the situation on the ground has shaped up since their ascent. This presents a veritable analytical puzzle.
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