Donald Trump Goes Apocalyptic | The country

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Donald Trump speaks at the Moms for Liberty Joyful Warriors national summit in Philadelphia on June 30, 2023. (Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images)

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As he prepares for his second criminal arraignment in 2023, Donald Trump has duly loaded his Truth Social account with all-caps messages to his followers bemoaning his legal martyrdom at the hands of a corrupt and thuggish Biden Justice Department. However, most of those adverbs felt called. Perhaps Trump knows he’s only reached the midpoint of his pending series of legal crucibles and needs to conserve his sloganeering energy. While he now faces Manhattan and Miami, he faces a possible indictment in Fulton County, Ga., this August as well as another federal case, both stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 results. election and resume the presidency through a coup.

Whatever the reason, Trump was left spouting semaphoric versions of his usual grievances on the morning of his arraignment for Espionage Act violations and obstruction of justice: WITCH HUNT! GET TO KNOW THE ELECTION! AMERICA FIRST! MAKE AMERICA AGAIN! The cumulative effect is a bit like watching a series of the most popular song titles scroll by during an infomercial for a vintage CD box set.

Against this pro forma backdrop, a post-arraignment Truth Social message stands out in stark relief. NOW THAT THE SEAL HAS BEEN BREAKED, THE OUTBURST HAS BEEN DONE, I WILL PROVIDE A REAL SPECIAL PROSECUTOR TO GO AFTER THE MOST CORRUPT PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE USA, JOE BIDEN, THE ENTIRE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY, AND EVERYONE ELSE INVOLVED IN THE DESTRUCTION. OF OUR ELECTION, BORDER, AND COUNTRY ITSELF! Journalist Jeff Sharlet, a close student of religious movements on the American right, noted that the broken-seal reference echoed the language of the Book of Revelation, which would surely resonate with Trumps fundamentalist or conspiracy- mind base. Following his earlier invocation of the approach of World War III and a promise that he alone could reverse America’s rapid descent into the cosmic abyss, Trump’s vow of legal vengeance against his Democratic persecutors doubled as a claim in divinity, writes Sharlet.

For all the procedural intrigue surrounding Trumps escalating legal troubles, the former president’s ongoing apocalyptic makeover is likely the most troubling and lasting legacy of his tour of the justice system. Even before he leaves office in January 2021, Trump has increasingly endorsed the messianic image and rhetoric of the QAnon movement, predicting the imminent departure of liberals for their concerted sexual predation and sacrifice of children , among other egregious violations. Trump did everything but his alliance with QAnon forces during the 2022 midterm campaign. As claims of persecution and martyrdom by the deep state become his main line of defense against increasingly impeachable criminal charges, the chiliastic phase of the Trump movement is likely to dominate right-wing messaging. in the upcoming presidential election.

And QAnon and the militant white-nationalist elements of the evangelical world are heeding Trump’s call. After his arraignment, Trump walked into a cafe in Miami, where supporters flocked to lay hands and pray for him. That same night, a group called Pastors for Trump hosted former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who himself pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about trafficking in classified intelligence, at a event on Twitter Spaces dedicated to national prayer and unity which of course translated into more biblical. themed vows of retribution for Trump’s political enemies. (Sample Flynn homily from the digital gathering: We want to pray for President Donald J. Trump, his entire family, and all who are involved in this war, this spiritual war we are facing. It is good against evil America First , if you will, against a globalist elite.)

Trump’s own televised remarks that night hammered home the same points, denouncing the unworthy and the Marxists who orchestrated his indictment and denouncing special prosecutor Jack Smith as a deranged lunatic, a thug, and a raging, out-of-control hatred of Trump. He denounced federal agencies for running illegal psychological warfare campaigns against the American people before building to the climax of the revivalist style: We have a nation in serious decline. If the communists can get away with it, it won’t stop me. They won’t hesitate to step up their persecution of Christians and pro-life activists, parents attending school board meetings and even future Republican candidates, which they do. We must end it forever and we must end it immediately. And he again promised to appoint a special prosecutor to target Biden now that the seal they broke was also important. When I’m re-elected and we’re re-elected, we’ll have no choice, we’ll never have a country I’ll completely eradicate the deep state. To fire up his crowd of zealous supporters, Trump once again invoked Revelation to offer himself as a propitiatory sacrifice for a nation of despised and persecuted believers.

It is more than a split-screen ideological divide or an alternative timeline that traces the prerogatives of executive power; it is a cult of personality morphing into a hard-core formation of divine messengers firmly convinced they are standing at Armageddon. Far from being defeated by subpoenas and indictments, the Trump movement has drawn an endlessly renewable sense of righteous vengeance from the fable of its own prosecution. Unless and until these basic facts are determined, Donald Trump’s legal woes will not produce better results in our politics.

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