Politico questions Trump's 'messianic rhetoric,' wonders if he sees himself as God

Yahoo

5 days ago

A Politico writer said President Donald Trump is using "messianic rhetoric" and questioned if the 47th president thinks he's like God.
"Trump's outlook has shifted in essence from stuff happens and nothing much matters to something happened and it couldn't matter more," the Friday piece authored by Michael Kruse, a senior staff writer at Politico and Politico Magazine, said. "His rhetoric has gone from borderline nihilistic to messianic."
The piece gave examples of Trump invoking God, especially following the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
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During his November victory speech at Mar-a-Lago, Trump said, "God spared my life for a reason," and during his inaugural speech at the Capitol in January, he said that he "was saved by God to make America great again."
"For a while now, a roster of religious believers and leaders, grateful for the political victories Trump has bestowed in exchange for their votes, have suggested and sometimes outright said that Trump is 'chosen,' or 'anointed,' or a 'savior,' or 'the second coming' or 'the Christ for this age,'" Kruse wrote. "Now, though, Trump does it, too."
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The headline asked, "Does Trump Actually Think He's God?"
The piece also mentioned Trump joking that he would like to be pope, as well as the AI depiction of himself as pope that he posted on social media that was also shared by the White House.
"It's worth asking. Does Trump… think he's God," Kruse asked. "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?"
Kruse said Alan Marcus, a former Trump consultant and publicist, told him that he has "no reason to doubt that he would… prefer to believe he was saved by a supreme being because he himself is special rather than the would-be assassin was a lousy shot or he got lucky."
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Marie Griffith, the director of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, told Kruse that she thinks Trump sees himself as a "chosen one."
"Perhaps opportunism and genuine belief in his own chosenness aren't mutually exclusive," Griffith said. "But whether he truly believes it or not, it is plainly in his interest to keep talking as if everything he does is sanctioned by God," she said. "And I think just looking at the rhetoric, you have to wonder if Butler really shook him up and he thought, 'Maybe they are right. Maybe I really am the 'chosen one.'"
Stephen Mansfield, author of "Choosing Donald Trump: God, Anger, Hope, and Why Christian Conservatives Supported Him," told Kruse that he thinks Trump believes he is a "tool of God."
Molly Worthen, a history professor at the University of North Carolina who specifically focuses on history and religion, told Kruse that Trump is a "nihilist for whom the only source of meaning is the amassing of personal power, turning his will into personal, political, financial and territorial domination." She added, "That's totally compatible with a messiah complex."
She added that she doesn't "see the recent turn in his language as a deviation from past patterns, but the fuller realization of those patterns."
Kruse's piece also highlighted a meme Trump posted on his TruthSocial account on Wednesday night that depicts Trump walking down a dark street with the words, "He's on a mission from God, nothing can stop what is coming."
Kruse said he asked White House communications director Steven Cheung in a text message if the president "literally" believes those words.
"As people of faith, we are all on missions from God," Cheung said. "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."Original article source: Politico questions Trump's 'messianic rhetoric,' wonders if he sees himself as God