# Other world leaders who were widely unpopular/said crazy ass things **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 13, 2016, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-world-leaders-who-were-widely-unpopular-said-crazy-ass-things/774574 "2016-12-13T01:18:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-world-leaders-who-were-widely-unpopular-said-crazy-ass-things/774574/1 "2016-12-13T01:18:31Z")
We’ve got a lot of threads and a lot of talk expressing peoples’ horror and disbelief over Mr. Trump’s upcoming presidency. I’m not happy either, believe me, but it’s done. So… can we possibly find a bright side and look back on rulers who a lot of people hated and / or feared; who were controversial, yet whose rule didn’t end in catastrophe or maybe even ended positively? My first thought is FDR and then maybe JFK. I’m no historian so I think the fervor today is not exactly the same, but that’s why I’m asking. Can we look back and see that sometimes the doom and gloom turns out well? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-world-leaders-who-were-widely-unpopular-said-crazy-ass-things/774574/2 "2016-12-13T01:33:59Z")
Italy survived both Berlusconi and Mussolini, albeit at some cost. Which one Trump will most closely resemble is unknowable. Yet. ---
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-world-leaders-who-were-widely-unpopular-said-crazy-ass-things/774574/3 "2016-12-13T01:46:17Z")
Agree with the above - I think Trump is most like Berlusconi. And he doesn’t even need to get any worse to be disastrous - Berlusconi was bad enough, but imagine if he presided over a vastly more influential and powerful country (sorry, Italia). ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-world-leaders-who-were-widely-unpopular-said-crazy-ass-things/774574/4 "2016-12-13T01:49:09Z")
Winston Churchill had a track record of huge mistakes and misjudgements. He worked out okay. They still dumped him the first chance they had after the war. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-world-leaders-who-were-widely-unpopular-said-crazy-ass-things/774574/5 "2016-12-13T01:53:55Z")
Well, so far this is grim. Surely we, or another nation, have been in this position before. Has there never been a happy ending? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-world-leaders-who-were-widely-unpopular-said-crazy-ass-things/774574/6 "2016-12-13T01:56:47Z")
We got through Richard Nixon mostly okay. He said some remarkably stupid things. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-world-leaders-who-were-widely-unpopular-said-crazy-ass-things/774574/7 "2016-12-13T01:58:21Z")
I don’t think the JFK presidency ended positively, but YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-world-leaders-who-were-widely-unpopular-said-crazy-ass-things/774574/8 "2016-12-13T02:05:06Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > We got through Richard Nixon mostly okay. He said some remarkably stupid things. Nixon weakened the presidency and helped establish the idea that the government was not to be trusted. It may be debatable whether those are good things or not, but distrust of the government has now become pathological in some quarters. I think Trump will inevitably make this even worse. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-world-leaders-who-were-widely-unpopular-said-crazy-ass-things/774574/9 "2016-12-13T03:24:22Z")
“We will bury you” by Khruschev > **[We will bury you](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_will_bury_you)** > > "We will bury you" (Russian: «Мы вас похороним!», romanized: "My vas pokhoronim!") is a phrase that was used by Soviet First (formerly General) Secretary Nikita Khrushchev, the de facto ruler of the USSR, while addressing Western ambassadors at a reception at the Polish embassy in Moscow on November 18, 1956. The phrase was originally translated into English by Khrushchev's personal interpreter Viktor Sukhodrev. The phrase was received very negatively by contemporary Western audiences, b While ... ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-world-leaders-who-were-widely-unpopular-said-crazy-ass-things/774574/10 "2016-12-13T03:39:07Z")
How quickly we forget [this guy…](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be6tunbRcs8) I suppose we survived his reign, if only just. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-world-leaders-who-were-widely-unpopular-said-crazy-ass-things/774574/11 "2016-12-13T03:54:46Z")
You know who else was a widely unpopular world leader who said crazy ass things? Only things didn’t work out so well for him!! ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-world-leaders-who-were-widely-unpopular-said-crazy-ass-things/774574/12 "2016-12-13T10:31:12Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > How quickly we forget [this guy…](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be6tunbRcs8) > > I suppose we survived his reign, if only just. Bush seems almost intelligent and presidential, in retrospect. ---
**Author:** ![mcgato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac8455/32.png) [@mcgato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcgato)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-world-leaders-who-were-widely-unpopular-said-crazy-ass-things/774574/13 "2016-12-13T13:52:43Z")
[Mahmoud Ahmadinejad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad) wasn’t that popular within Iran or outside of Iran. He was also well known for making bizarre statements. I think that the Iranian government set up limited the damage that he could ultimately do. Note: I am not an expert in this area. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-world-leaders-who-were-widely-unpopular-said-crazy-ass-things/774574/14 "2016-12-13T14:06:38Z")
I thought of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was prone to making provocative/insulting statements and getting into trouble as a result. After an uproar over one of his typical indiscretions, a diplomat sadly said “The other sovereigns are so much _quieter_”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-world-leaders-who-were-widely-unpopular-said-crazy-ass-things/774574/15 "2016-12-13T14:06:57Z")
The recent Venezuelan Presidents, Chávez and Maduro, are real doozies and comparable in several ways to Trump. While Chávez was popular in the beginning, his support went away by the end. Maduro didn’t even start off popular. Rigged elections are a wonderful thing, aren’t they? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-world-leaders-who-were-widely-unpopular-said-crazy-ass-things/774574/16 "2016-12-13T14:07:30Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Nixon weakened the presidency and helped establish the idea that the government was not to be trusted. You misspelled “destroyed 150 years of inherent respect for the office.” Which, in the longest run, will probably be seen as the first domino leading to Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-world-leaders-who-were-widely-unpopular-said-crazy-ass-things/774574/17 "2016-12-13T14:11:37Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Bush seems almost intelligent and presidential, in retrospect. And that’s really it - we’ve had good Presidents and bad, of Our party and The Other Guys, but pretty much all of them have been reasonably qualified, experienced and… “Presidential.” Not a one comes to mind who didn’t have a clue what the job entailed or needed or demanded. This time is \*different \*in so many respects it’s boggling. But it seems to be a global thing. The rise of extreme, frankly crazy-ass leaders like Berlusconi and Chavez and Duterte and Putin is… disturbing. I think we’re about to be reminded that progress is never continuous. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-world-leaders-who-were-widely-unpopular-said-crazy-ass-things/774574/18 "2016-12-13T14:44:02Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Bush seems almost intelligent and presidential, in retrospect. I am a huge critic of Dubya, but I am so stealing this line. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-world-leaders-who-were-widely-unpopular-said-crazy-ass-things/774574/19 "2016-12-13T14:47:41Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > And that’s really it - we’ve had good Presidents and bad, of Our party and The Other Guys, but pretty much all of them have been reasonably qualified, experienced and… “Presidential.” Not a one comes to mind who didn’t have a clue what the job entailed or needed or demanded. This time is \*different \*in so many respects it’s boggling. I don’t know… there were some of those 19th century presidents who, if not as unqualified on paper, were certainly unprepared for the Presidency and did poor jobs. Plus there was Harding. Trump has some stiff competition before he gets to “worst President ever”. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-world-leaders-who-were-widely-unpopular-said-crazy-ass-things/774574/20 "2016-12-13T14:49:12Z")
John Oliver likes to remind us that the Philippines have a pretty wacky president. He’s still the president though so no word on how it “went” just [how it’s going](http://www.forbes.com/sites/erinhale/2016/12/07/the-five-most-ridiculous-things-philippine-president-rodrigo-duterte-said-in-2016/#ef765fe3484f). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-world-leaders-who-were-widely-unpopular-said-crazy-ass-things/774574.md?page=2)