It’s always a dangerous thing when autocratic rulers believe that they are on a mission from God. And it’s even more dangerous when they convince their followers to share their delusion.
Here’s a bit from Donald Trump’s inauguration speech, where he portrays his surviving an assassination attempt as divine intervention: “Those who wish to stop our cause have tried to take my freedom and indeed take my life. Just a few months ago, in a beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin’s bullet ripped through my ear, but I felt then, and believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again. For American citizens, January 20 2025 is liberation day.”
When we look at the history of religious despots, we understand very clearly why he is doing this. It’s so that whatever terrible thing he does, he can say: “God told me to do it.” “The devil made me do it” is an excuse, but “God made me do it” is a reason. Why would God tell you, for example, to annex Greenland? Because God, apparently, is an American. He is God™. And God most definitely is a He in Trump’s new/old world of two solid, hierarchical genders, which very clearly places the male above the female.
What are God™ and Trump liberating the US from? The main thing, it would seem, is a guilty conscience. For too long, the country has been shackled by its own view of itself as an ethical democracy with a responsibility to a global community it purported to lead. Leader of the free world, as the marketing had it. No more. Now, if we are to accept the rebranding of Trump and his minions, it’s America first, and its only responsibility is to God™.
How will this Christian fundamentalism play out? Let’s take a look at incoming secretary of state Marco Rubio’s opening remarks to the Senate foreign relations committee: “I also want to acknowledge all the blessings that God has bestowed upon me in my life. My faith is critical and it’s something I will lean and rely on heavily in the months ahead. In a tumultuous world we are called to promote the cause of peace and the common good, and that task has gotten harder than it’s ever been. And I will rely heavily on my faith and pray for God’s blessings, that he’ll provide me the strength, the wisdom and the courage to do what is right in these tenuous moments.”
It’s getting your rationale in early. “I prayed, and God™ told me to invade Greenland.” Because God™ loves oil. It says so in Psalm 23:5. “You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honour me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings.” (I’m using oil to stand in for Greenland’s actual mineral assets and strategic value, before someone shoots off a fiery fact-check to the editor.)
When God™ starts whispering in your ear, it’s always a short delusional hop to manifest destiny
When God™ starts whispering in your ear, it’s always a short delusional hop to manifest destiny. According to Rubio, “the post-war global order is not just obsolete, it is now a weapon being used against us”. In other words, and indeed other words that Rubio’s orange messiah himself used in the opening sentences of his inauguration speech, “the golden age of America begins right now. From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer.”
Trump actually used the term “manifest destiny” in his speech, as part of a paid-for product placement for Elon Musk. “And we will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars.”
It’s nice to see that colonialism has made a comeback. Manifest destiny, of course, is another US marketing term, coined (according to Britannica) in 1845, in an essay in The United States Magazine and Democratic Review about the necessity of annexing Texas and the inevitability of territorial expansion. The author was protesting against Europe, and specifically England and France, meddling in US affairs.
They were, he wrote, acting “for the avowed object of thwarting our policy and hampering our power, limiting our greatness and checking the fulfilment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions”. And in another essay, he described manifest destiny as “that which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us”. God™ is the new Providence.
Wikipedia’s description of the central tenets of manifest destiny could be an AI summary of Trump’s inauguration speech. To whit, the assumption of the unique moral virtue of the US, the assertion of its mission to redeem the world by the spread of republican government and more generally the “American way of life”, and faith in the nation’s divinely ordained destiny to succeed in this mission.
“Our rights come not from man or from government, but from God.”
— Donald Trump
It’s all in Rubio’s speech. “We are once again called to create a free world out of the chaos, and this will not be easy. And it will be impossible without a strong and a confident America that engages in the world, putting our core national interests once again above all else. We are a nation that was founded on the revolutionary truth that all men are created equal, and that our rights come not from man or from government, but from God. And so we will never be indifferent to the suffering of our fellow man. But ultimately, under President Trump, the top priority of the US department of state will be the US.
“Our rights come not from man or from government, but from God.”
Well, I guess that puts the US constitution in its place. Why would a politician say that his government isn’t the source of citizens’ freedoms and rights? Because the poor saps don’t have a president any more, they have the anointed messiah of God™ in charge. He is the Great Amendment.
This is a really sweet utilitarian device, and will be used to justify all manner of Trumpian aggressions, both domestically and internationally. As Rubio said: “For in the end, how can America promote the cause of peace on earth if it is not first safe at home? What good is America to our allies if it is not strong? And how can America end the suffering of God’s children across the world if it is not first prosperous here at home?”
The idea is that the US is looking after No 1 for the good of the rest of the world, not because it has succumbed to the selfish ambitions of a corrupt autocrat. Though you’ll note that, by using the term “God’s children”, Rubio leaves the door open to ignore the suffering of those who aren’t the infantilised followers of God™.
There’s also a lot of freedom (as in, freedom to justify doing whatever you want as being for the greater good) in being the self-proclaimed saviour of the free world. According to the BBC, Trump told reporters apropos of Washington buying Greenland: “I think the people want to be with us. I don’t really know what claim Denmark has to it, but it would be a very unfriendly act if they didn’t allow that to happen because it’s for the protection of the free world. I think Greenland, we’ll get because it has to do with freedom of the world. It has nothing to do with the US, other than that we’re the one that can provide the freedom. They can’t.”
Ah, yes. It’s not about US territorial and political ambitions, it’s about saving “freedom”. It’s mind-boggling. If Denmark doesn’t give up Greenland, it is being unfriendly, and worse — it is actively against protecting the free world. And the poor old US is just shouldering the burden and doing what God™ tells it to do.
Why do I insist on the trademark sign? Because as we’ve seen with Trump’s reaction to the Rt Rev Mariann Edgar Budde’s sermon asking him to show mercy to immigrants and members of the LGBQT+ community, God isn’t for everyone any more. Trump called her a “radical Left hardline Trump hater”, and said she had “brought her church into the world of politics in a very ungracious way”. God™ belongs to Trump now, and is the enabling belief system that will allow him to wreak his particular brand of havoc on the world. Welcome to the new Crusades.
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