(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



As If Things Weren't Nuts Enough [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-05-31

Michael Kruse of Politico is now wondering: Does Trump Actually Think He’s God?

It’s worth asking. Does Trump … think he’s God? OK, he almost certainly doesn’t think he’s God — but does he think he’s … God-like? Divinely sanctioned or inspired or empowered? Does he think he’s somehow imbued with some special, sacred purpose for some special, sacred reason? Or did he just see and seize an opportunity to stamp his world-upending agenda with the ultimate justification — a mandate from God?

Well, maybe he doesn’t think he is God . . . not yet, anyway. But he’s only a couple of steps away from there.

Over the last 10 or so months since [the assassination attempt at] Butler, however, and especially since his reelection and the start of his second administration, Trump’s outlook has shifted in essence from stuff happens and nothing much matters to something happened and it couldn’t matter more. His rhetoric has gone from borderline nihilistic to messianic.

Kruse lays out how Trump used to think events were random — he once called himself a fatalist — with occasional touches of predestination. He pandered to the Christian right not because he believed as they do but because they were a great source of votes. But then, Politico argues, came the attempted assassination at Butler — where Trump would have died had he not turned his head at just the right instant.

Far-right Christians immediately took that as a sign that God had saved him and had a special task for him. Trump may or may not have believed that, but he certainly went along with it. He even said so at his inauguration — At inauguration, Trump vows new ‘golden age’: ‘I was saved by God to make America great again’ — even though at the same time and rather conspicuously Trump doesn't place hand on Bible during swearing-in.

But now, perhaps as the resistance to his incompetence, his incoherence, his insanity grows, he may really have internalized the idea that he is the (new) messiah, if not God himself. Kruse points out that after the Federal court strikes down Trump’s tariffs on countries around the world three days ago, that same evening Trump posted on his Truth Social platform a picture of himself striding down a darkened street with the words “He’s on a mission from God & Nothing can stop what is coming.” (I will NOT post a link to Truth Social; there’s a link near the end of the Politico article if you really must see it.)

For all of Kruse’s concern about the increasing probability that Trump is developing a messiah complex, I think he missed the significance of Trump’s post. For one thing, he saved it for the end of his article. Then he concluded with this dialogue:

“Does the president mean with the post of this meme,” I asked in a text message to White House communications director Steven Cheung, “that he’s literally on a mission from God?” “As people of faith, we are all on missions from God,” Cheung responded. “The President has the biggest mission — to Make America Great Again and to help bring peace across the world. And he’s doing just that.”

Cheung recognized the danger of Trump’s meme and tried to water it down, and Kruse let him. He couldn’t quite bring himself to admit where his argument was heading — which is that the country is now in the hands of a madman who is more and more coming to believe that anything he does is not just sanctioned by God but mandated by God, and that he is entitled to use the godlike powers of his office to annihilate anyone and everyone who gets in his way, because to oppose him is to oppose the creator of the universe.

There were hints of this before. Take just one example from 2019: 'King of Israel' Donald Trump: I am the chosen one.

Donald Trump has exposed himself to accusations of a messiah complex after self-referencing as "the King of Israel", "the second coming of God" and "the chosen one" in the space of a few hours.

Back then he had enough sense left not to go too far. Mostly. And when he did try, there were enough sane people in his administration to keep him from going too far. This time around, he made sure to surround himself only with sycophants — acolytes is a more appropriate term — and to place himself beyond the reach of mortal men. So when he says, as he did the other day when some mortal judges tried to tell him “no” on tariffs, that “Nothing can stop what is coming” — that should be setting off alarm bells everywhere. NOW.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/5/31/2325319/-As-If-Things-Weren-t-Nuts-Enough?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/