My loose understanding of Hegel’s concept of a world historical figure, is that unlike Nietzsche’s ubermensch - where history is sculpted by ‘great men’. Hegel proposed that people who embody the zeitgeist rise to power and influence.

Not necessarily because they’re great, or even competent, but simply because they reflect the spirit of the time.

Obama represented a rejection of religious conservatism in favour of secular, science based reasoning.

Trump now, reflects the chaos and mistrust in modern society. People are angry and feel let down by the systems that are meant to support and protect them. Social media has allowed for many different contradictory’s narratives to simultaneously come to prominence.

He is (in my opinion) neither competent or even half decent. But he does reflect the spirit of the age in a way Biden does not.

With this in mind, could he be considered a world historical figure, and would you agree that Obama was too back in 2008?