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MAGA Jesus poster, January 6
Donald Trump supporter on January 6, 2021 at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, holding a MAGA Jesus poster. Photo credit: Tyler Merbler / Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Some pictures say more than a thousand words… and this one tells the story of a man who is mentally unwell, a party that has lost its way, a Christian movement that is worshiping a false idol, and a country in decline.

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While Donald Trump’s malignant narcissism usually manifests itself in harmful and scary ways, it also provides moments of great hilarity. And perhaps none was funnier so far than a drawing the former president posted on Truth Social showing Jesus watching over him during one of his trials.

There is perhaps no greater gift you can make to a malignant narcissist with a God complex than to portray them as somebody worth worshiping.

Trump loves these depictions. He often posts images of people “praying over him” or those representing him as a messianic figure.

But this one really took things to another level:

Look at it… and we mean really look at it.

Think about how crazy you would have to be to post this about yourself!

Imagine seeing a message on the company intranet with the subject line, “Great BBQ this weekend,” and you open it just to find it’s an image of a colleague flipping burgers at a grill with Jesus looking on.

Or you get an email from your aunt without a subject, and it’s just an illustration of her gardening while Jesus is watering the flowers.

While there is some humor in this level of insanity, it is mostly troubling… especially when the guy who is nuts enough to do it is the heavy favorite to get his party’s presidential nomination.

Some pictures say more than a thousand words… and this one tells the story of a man who is mentally unwell, a party that has lost its way, a Christian movement that is worshiping a false idol, and a country in decline.

When it comes to Trump, people are so used to his antics, his weirdness, and his derangement that they just shrug off behavior like this.

Donald Trump, laying hands, Christians

Then President Donald J. Trump participates in a prayer with African American Leaders and Pastor Paula White in the White House on February 27, 2020. Photo credit: Trump White House Archived / Flickr

But doing so is actually dangerous.

Nobody should ignore that an actual madman with delusions of grandeur will once again be within striking distance of the White House next year.

This goes way beyond policy differences. It’s not about Trump’s positions (if he has them) on tax policy, immigration, abortion, or whatever.

It’s fine to have disagreements on those, and people can and should vote according to their beliefs.

But putting anybody who is literally insane in power is irresponsible.

Last time around, the country, and the world, got lucky. While Trump did plenty of damage to US institutions, for the most part, they ended up holding.

The same was true for international relations. Despite Trump’s tendency to pal around with authoritarian regimes because they flatter him and their power appeals to him, the global community survived his first presidency relatively unscathed.

Things may turn out differently if Trump returns to power… especially because he now has new grievances, more enemies, and a personal incentive to dismantle democracy and the legal system.

Therefore, when the former president tells us that he is nuts by posting images like the above, everybody should listen — and more journalists should do their jobs and point out how bizarre Trump and his behavior are instead of normalizing them. 

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