Donald Trump is latest macho politician in Vladimir Putin mould. Niall Ferguson posits the existence of a feminine brand of politics. On the latest round of immigration into Europe:

But now ask yourself how Europe got into this mess. On German television last July, Merkel reduced a young Palestinian refugee to tears by explaining that her family might have to face deportation. “There are thousands and thousands of people in Palestinian refugee camps,” she explained. “If we now say, ‘You can all come’ … we just cannot manage that.”

The waterworks worked. Six weeks later, Merkel had opened Germany and was declaring: “We can manage that.”

All kinds of historical explanations have been offered for her epoch-making change of mind, including her East German upbringing, but to me it was the essence of feminine politics. Faced with Reem Sahwil’s tears, the Chancellor’s reaction was an impulsive attempt to comfort her, followed by a massive U-turn.

Ferguson sees Trump as “just the latest standard-bearer of a worldwide revolt against feminine politics.”

Vladimir Putin is the Russian version. Narendra Modi is the Indian version. Xi Jinping is China’s macho man. Recep Tayyip Erdogan is Turkey’s. They talk tough. They strike tough poses. They would never, ever comfort a crying girl.

Well that’s career-wise brave of Ferguson to risk the wrath of feminists, but an alternative explanation would be that they are anti-PC politicians, reflecting the will of much of the electorate against the unreality and leftward political manipulation of political correctness.

Note, too, that [they] are repudiating not just female leaders but also the “girlie men” leaders of the post-Cold War era who were very young, went to the gym, sipped pinot noir and had metrosexual policies to match. Politics, like the German language, has masculine, feminine and neuter.