"Trump’s supporters . . . do not really hold him to the standards that human persons are held to. And that is because many of his supporters, like Trump himself, do not consider him to be a person — he is more like a primal force or superhero, more than a person, but less than a person, too."
Daniel P. McAdams, Professor of Psychology, Northwestern University
Trump's supporters imagine him as a comic book hero. Or an agent of God.
They aren't being ironic.
Barack Obama had a rock star vibe in the beginning. Reagan's supporters imagined him as a cowboy with a white hat. George Bush tried out looking like a fighter pilot and drew guffaws. Bill Clinton was a man -- just a man -- glib, charming, and a notorious and all-too carnal horn dog.
Trump is something more. Trump has his own iconography.
There are many rational judgements and preferences that would explain why people might support Trump. People might like his judicial nominees, his views on borders, his views on Russia and Ukraine, his price supports for soybeans, his blood and soil nationalism, or the fact that he fights the people the voter dislikes. But that doesn't explain the blindness to his dishonesty and criminality. The simplest explanation is that Trump's strongest supporters are in a cult. They appear to have created a idol. A golden calf. They invested it -- him -- with magical power. Some have made him a comic book superhero. Others have made him sacred, a Christ-figure. But this Christ substitute is not meek nor does he consent to a fate of dying for others at the hands of Caesar or the Department of Justice.
Trump encourages and sponsors this idolatry. His official merchandise offers the images for sale. The images are noteworthy for the seriousness that Trump shows them and that his supporters display them. His Truth Social website has images of Trump as as Rambo; Trump fearless atop a tank; Batman Trump; Trump Bat-signals; Trump as sword-wielding knight; Trump as sheriff; Trump as lion; Trump as Savior and partner with Jesus.
These are recent images from Trump's Truth Social:
Trump is not the non-corporeal God of Abraham. He is the Greek gods of Homer or the magical people in the Marvel universe. He is larger than life. He makes his own rules. He is armed, sometimes armored. He represents strength and violence. He is also our protector, suffering for us. He promises a second coming.
As I wrote yesterday, I think the Trump era is unraveling under the weight of criminality and crazy. As events move toward criminal trials and primary elections Trump's statements on social media are getting more extreme, more erratic. They are aimed at judges, prosecutors, witnesses, and are likely to trigger judicial sanctions. Trump seems to welcome that. He does not want to consent to laws. They are irrelevant to him. Like the gods of Homer, he is above the law and constraints of the temporal world of mere mortals. They can fix fights, and so can he.
An insightful piece. This explains the cult as well as anything I've seen.
"Like the gods of Homer, he is above the law and constraints of the temporal world of mere mortals."
Those gods spent a lot of time effing us mortals, too, with awful consequences (e.g., Zeus/Leda--> "The broken wall, the burning roof and tower / And Agamemnon dead." (Yeats)) Zeus is much like Trump: lustful, violent, and maniacal. Trump, though, will never become Rilke's swan.
Those images are visual Ipecac. Impressive muscles and codpiece, though.