NEW YORK, NY June 15 (DPI) – A British historian who has written extensively on WWI leaders offered a brief essay in The New Yorker this week comparing the character traits of Prussian Kaiser Wilhelm II with those of Trump.  The parallels are not reassuring.

Miranda Carter wrote that Kaiser Wilhelm, widely seen as having played a large role in the political climate that set off World War I   – was a hopeless narcissist who had “neither the attention span nor the ability” to lead. Further, Wilhelm had an unpredictable nature, with insecurities that had to be constantly stroked.

Wilhelm ruled Germany for 30 years, from 1888 to the end of the First World War, in 1918.

The headline in The New Yorker piece – “What Happens When a Bad-Tempered Distractable Doofus Runs an Empire?” – pretty well makes its point. One passage:

One of the many things that Wilhelm was convinced he was brilliant at, despite all evidence to the contrary, was “personal diplomacy,” fixing foreign policy through one-on-one meetings with other European monarchs and statesmen. In fact, Wilhelm could do neither the personal nor the diplomacy, and these meetings rarely went well. The Kaiser viewed other people in instrumental terms, was a compulsive liar, and seemed to have a limited understanding of cause and effect.

Carter, though, omits a rather important detail in the historical comparison – that Trump, in office barely 18 months, was elected, and must face the voters every four years.

Yes, Trump’s impact in this fast-paced age may compare with that of the long rule of Wilhelm, but American voters will have its chance to direction of the nation.

Still, Carter closes her brief essay with a key point that many pundits and political observers are already grappling with: Even if Trump is voted out of office in 2020, or even ousted before then by the rule of law, what kind of problems with the nation be left with?

The real lesson of Kaiser Wilhelm II, however, may be that Trump’s leaving office might not be the end of the problems he may bring on or exacerbate—it may be only the beginning.