You can think what you want of Donald Trump – who today will become the first president in the history of the United States to be formally criminally indicted – but you have to give him one thing:
the man does not hide his game.
« What You See Is What You Get », comme disent les Anglais.
DAVID AGAINST GOLIATH
Proof that the Grand Orange is playing fair: where did he launch his campaign to return to the White House on March 25?
In Waco, Texas, a highly symbolic place that was, 30 years ago, the scene of a murderous assault launched against a sect that was opposed to federal power.
By choosing this city to launch his presidential campaign, Trump not only presented himself as an innocent victim of Deep Statethe state within the state which, according to him, really controls the destinies of the country.
He compared himself to David Koresh, the charismatic leader of the Davidian cult which, after a 51-day siege, was decimated by agents of the FBI and the ATF (the federal agency which, in the United States , is responsible for monitoring and regulating the sale of alcohol, tobacco and firearms).
According to Trump, Koresh is not a cuckoo who thinks he is Jesus Christ. But a national hero, a sort of freedom fighter who, like the David of the Old Testament, dared to stand up to Goliath.
NOT A POLITICIAN, A GURU!
Notice, the comparison is not far-fetched.
Trump indeed looks much more like a cult leader than a politician.
Didn’t he say himself that his flock would continue to vote for him, even if he went out on 5th Avenue and randomly shot a stranger?
And the worst part is that it’s true!
The ties that bind Trump to his supporters are unmistakably similar to those that bind members of a cult to their guru.
Whatever one may say, Trumpism is not a political phenomenon; it is a religious phenomenon.
We swim here in full irrationality, in full mysticism.
Trump is not just a party leader: he is a spiritual teacher. And his fans are not activists: they are followers, who have “seen the light” thanks to their “initiator”.
Before, they lived in ignorance. Now they know. They hold the Truth.
Trump is the latest in a long line of pastors, charlatans and preachers who, from Jehovah’s Witnesses to Mormons to Adventists, Evangelicals and other Methodists, are promising Americans paradise after a fierce struggle against the spirit of Evil.
MALIGNANT
Want to understand Trump better?
Don’t waste your time sifting through political essays, read instead Wise Blood (Malignant), the cult novel by Flannery O’Connor telling the story of an evangelical preacher from the south who, after being demobilized, founds a delirious sect: the Church of Christ without Christ.
Trump n’est pas Ronald Reagan.
He’s another Ron, L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology.
And today, like Christ, Trump will be taken to court.
Fulfilling the prophecy.