“I am your voice.”

“I am your warrior.”

“I am the chosen one.”

“I am your retribution.”

“I’m being indicted for you.”

The “I am” statements keep coming from the self-proclaimed messiah who in reality is a malignant narcissist, pathological liar, sexual predator, career conman and America’s biggest criminal—and a man that millions of white American Christians actually believe is their messiah. His dark charisma is so appealing to so many that for much of white American Christianity today, being a follower of anti-Christ Trump is their very identity. 

Millions, dismissing Jesus’ inclusive, compassionate and peaceful life and teachings, hang on their extremist political messiah’s every word. So widespread is Trump’s messianic following that some mesmerized adherents of Trumpianity have been known to praise their savior’s divinity on billboards and in books.

There is a backstory to this madness: Much of white American Christianity—from enslaving Black people to racial apartheid to violent resistance to human rights—has long marinated in white pride and an overriding lust for power. Anti-Christ Donald Trump is the historical dark side of white American Christianity on steroids: unquenchable authoritarianism with an endless capacity to punish anyone who stands in his way of obtaining ultimate power.

Today, a seemingly endless army of white Christian extremist organizations are hard at work rallying a Trumpian army to the cause of overthrowing our democracy and implementing a theocracy with Trump as king. Having discarded Jesus of the gospels, they retain “Christian” language in service of their new savior. One of these organizations—the Family Leadership Summit, representative of the many—speaks for Trumpianity at large in falsely claiming to “embrace Christian values and a God-honoring vision for America.” 

How extremist are the alleged “Christian values” and “God-honoring vision” of Trumpianity? They place lies over truth, corruption over justice, hatred over love, cruelty over mercy, violence over peace, death over life. 

As messiah of this extremist political religion, Trump has: lied tens of thousands of times to cover up truth; brazenly committed crimes rather than obey the law (91 felony charges and counting at this moment); endlessly pretended that hatred and persecution of people of color, women, LGBTQ+ persons and liberals is love; routinely called for cruelty against persons who do not bow down to his wishes; bragged that he could personally murder someone and get away with it; and called on his followers to harm and even kill others at his will, most notably on January 6. 

So normalized has Trumpianity become that white American Christianity—of which Trump-worship is not by any stretch representative of the whole—is no longer publicly perceived as a religion, but rather an extremist political ideology fostering domestic religious terrorism throughout Trump’s presidency to the present day

As our nation descended into and now remains mired in Donald Trump’s darkness and violence, hundreds of psychologists and psychiatrists have warned us of the existentialist dangers posed by the man with a messiah complex. 

Interviewed for a 2021 Scientific American article titled “The ‘Shared Psychosis’ of Donald Trump and His Loyalists,” forensic psychiatrist Bandy X. Lee dug deeper into Trump’s messiah-like influence over his followers. “Shared psychosis,” she noted, is also known as “‘folie à millions’ [‘madness for millions’] when occurring at the national level.” 

The “emotional bonds” Trump “has created facilitate shared psychosis at a massive scale,” she continues. “When a highly symptomatic individual is placed in an influential position, the person’s symptoms can spread through the population through emotional bonds, heightening existing pathologies and inducing delusions, paranoia and propensity for violence—even in previously healthy individuals.”

Messianic cult leaders and followers are as one. In Trump’s own words: “I am your voice.” “I am your warrior.” “I am the chosen one.” “I am your retribution.” “I’m being indicted for you.”

Today, more than 1,100 of Trump’s January 6 domestic terrorists have been arrested, and more than 300 sentenced to prison. Bewilderingly, some who are now incarcerated still perceive Trump to be their messiah, testimony to the psychological dynamics between cult leader and followers as explained by psychiatrist Lee.

And still Trump calls for the death of many who oppose his messianic mission, his self-glorifying, delusional, murderous agenda supported by nearly two-thirds of Republican voters—most of whom are self-identified “Christians.”  

In due time, the self-proclaimed “chosen one” will likely be justly imprisoned for his unprecedented crimes against the United States of America and his fellow Americans. How the “madness” of Trump’s “millions” of worshipers reacts to the incarceration of their messiah will determine what happens next. 

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