This article examines the strategic function of public displays of vulnerability by three powerful male figures: Russian President Vladimir Putin, Canadian psychologist and conservative social media personality Jordan Peterson, and Swedish and Danish politician and Islamophobe Rasmus Paludan. Each is associated with ideologies that are championing 'traditional' masculinity, which means their shows of vulnerability may initially appear at odds with the conservative or right-wing values they promulgate. We examine what is meant to be invoked in the audience by these figures' strategic borrowing of 'feminine' traits in their performances of masculinity.Theoretically, the article is rooted in theories of identification in psychoanalysis and critical theory as they relate to processes of leadership and group identification, as well as treating the masculinist logic of gendered nationalism as underlying contemporary forms of right-wing politics. We find that the three men's strategic borrowing of vulnerability in fact represents a manipulative component of right-wing Weltanschauung, where its performance can solidify dominance over groups of followers, without extending compassion to those othered by this very ideology.