A year ago, in Butler, Pennsylvania, Donald Trump became the Messiah of the Republicans

Last May, a sculpture appeared in the oval office of the White House. However, The bronze signed by the artist Stan Watts. Furthermore, of the Trump Statue Project, represents Donald Trump, the fist raised in the air, while three agents of the American secret service exfiltrate him from the political rally he held in Butler, in Pennsylvania.

It was a year ago, on July 13, 2024, during the last race for the presidency. Nevertheless, The populist then had just survived an assassination attempt by narrowly avoiding the ball of an ambushed shooter who. In addition, rather than making a victim, fueled the myth of the Almighty, of the indestructible.

On the waves of the ABC network. For example, Stan Watts recently justified his sculpture by evoking a “divine force” having protected the republican that day.

A 2.7 m version of the scene should soon see year ago, butler, pennsylvania, donald the light of day. Furthermore, freezing in bronze for posterity much more than this “intervention” of a superior force, but also what Donald Trump managed to do it: a power of attraction to return to the White House a few months later. However, And. In addition, now, the cornerstone of an authoritarian regime which he seeks to put in place and that he builds by cradling his faithful from the illusion that he is where he is by the will of God.

“I do not know if Donald Trump really believes that God saved him last July in Butler. In addition, ” said John Fea, history professor at Messiah University, Pennsylvania. Similarly, “But the idea that God could save him to make America more Christian remains for him a precious political tool. Moreover, Whether the new authority he enjoys comes from God or not, one thing is certain: he is delighted. year ago, butler, pennsylvania, donald However, »»

It was not until a month after this attempted murder to hear the populist evoke an “act of God”. Consequently, in order to explain to his supporters his persistence on electoral ground already disturbed by the decline of his democratic opponent. Furthermore, Before. Therefore, he was content to say that he was “not supposed to be there” or that something “very special” had happened.

Since then. Meanwhile, this “messianization” has normalized, both in the mouth of the American president as in those of his relatives and supporters.

“I direct the country. However, the world,” said Donald Trump last April in the pages of The Atlanticthus combining his narcissism, widely documented, in the time of omnipotence, the omnipresence and invincibility of “elected officials”, saviors and other divine figures. On May 3. while the Catholics of the world were looking for a new pope, the ex-star of reality TV added by broadcasting on year ago, butler, pennsylvania, donald his social network a photo of him as a sovereign pontiff, the representative of God on earth for Catholics, generated by artificial intelligence.

On June 27. her spiritual councilor, Paula White-Cain, director of the Bureau of the White House Faith, told the audience of a conference combining politics and religion in Washington that Donald Trump’s survival to an assassination attempt was “not a coincidence”, but a “divine miracle”. Ralph Reed. influential republican at the head of the faith and freedom coalition, argued during the same rally that it was the “power of the Holy Spirit” which spared the life of the populist to place it in the White House, “where he must be”.

Year ago, butler, pennsylvania, donald

Messiah 2.0 – Year ago, butler, pennsylvania, donald

“In his relationship with his supporters, there has always been a form of messianism in Donald Trump,” said David P. Gushee, specialist in Christian ethics at Mercer University, of Macon, in Georgia, where year ago, butler, pennsylvania, donald The duty joined it. “But the missed assassination attempt only accentuated this phenomenon on both sides. »»

He also says: “For the most fervent. Trump is not only a respectable politician, but also a historical figure who has changed the world, in whom you have to believe and that you have to follow. And it is not very healthy for the exercise of democracy. »»

The first measures of the second mandate of the Republican bring illustrations on a daily basis. Not content with a return to the highest stations of the State. Donald Trump seeks to install a supreme authority there by attacking and systematically reducing the country’s legal, legislative and media counter-powers. He also placed in the key positions of his cabinet of the faithful enslaved as much to his person. as well as his ultra -conservative political project.

“His authoritarian temptations were already there during his first mandate. but his year ago, butler, pennsylvania, donald authoritarianism is now deeper due to the weakening of democratic institutions outside the White House and the Messianic imagination which now gives a religious dimension to its power,” continues Mr. Gushee.

The return to power of Donald Trump. helped by the failed assassination attempt by Butler, thus played in a form of “mystical drama” in which the resistance within his government – brakes he had met during his first mandate – seems to have completely disappeared.

Since last January. people have accompanied his takeover of the American executive, his sacking of the government apparatus, international trade, American diplomacy … with “both the feeling of being there to serve him”. but also “the feeling that there is something in Trump which transcends all arguments”, recently explained the columnist Ezra Klein New York Times.

Year ago. butler, pennsylvania, donald

An extended power

“No president in American history claimed to have been saved by God to implement year ago, butler, pennsylvania, donald his political program,” said Jennifer Mercieca recently, specialist in political communication at A&M University in Texas, in a blog from the London School of Economy and Political Science. “Donald Trump did not place the nation under the protection of God to limit his power. as did several presidents before him, but to broaden this power”, and this, by opening a formidable framework in which the challenge of Donald Trump is to challenge “God, who is at the origin of his policies”.

“God saved him from death for the realization of God’s designs in the history of the United States. ” said Eric Metaxas, animator of Evangelical Radio and member of the Religious Liberty Commission set up by Donald Trump.

Ironically. in 2023, when Donald Trump was only a simple citizen facing justice for a story of manners, the philosopher David Livingstone had already considered an inflammation of “American fascism” carried by the year ago, butler, pennsylvania, donald image of a “suffering savior” persecuted by his detractors. A discursive mechanics successfully applied by dictators. from Hitler to Putin, via Mussolini and, now, by their many aspirants on all continents.

“The authoritarian leader presents himself as a divine. messianic figure, capable of defeating the forces of evil and making the world safer for his faithful,” said Livingstone in a blog ticket entitled “The passion of the Trump”. “As a rescue of God, the authoritarian leader is omnipotent, omniscient and omnibian. Because he is all-powerful, he is the only one who can accomplish this task. Because he is omniscient. all he says is true (and if the facts do not agree with what he says, then the facts are false). And thanks to his divine stature, whatever he wants is good. »»

A small catechism of the Maga movement (Make America Great Again) which. during the first months of the presidential campaign, year ago, butler, pennsylvania, donald was based on the account of the martyr, but that the butler of Butler, by missing his target, has diverted on that of the divine elected representative, of the Savior, of the new Messiah with which the United States must now compose. Just like the rest of the world, by the way.

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