Trump and Ruto: Two Presidents, One Dangerous Playbook

U.S. President Donald Trump listens as Kenyan President William Ruto delivers remarks during a peace accord signing ceremony between Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace on December 04, 2025 in Washington, DC.[AFP]

When Catholic historian and liberal thinker Lord Acton of Groppoli in an 1887 letter coined the phrase “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” he could hardly have guessed how pertinent his warning would be nearly 150 years later in two very different countries on opposite sides of the world.

Acton said that holding any kind of authority erodes a person’s moral sense, and that unchecked power, with no oversight and no checks and balances or accountability, destroys that person’s ethical standards completely, leading to tyranny and self-serving abuse.