'Personality cult': Trump faithful see God's hand in assassination escape

Milwaukee (AFP) – Devotees of Donald Trump have long proclaimed he was chosen by God to save the United States -- but the messianic fervor has hit new heights after the Republican presidential candidate narrowly survived an assassination attempt.

At the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week, the party faithful have been quick to credit divine intervention with saving their leader's life after he was wounded in a shooting at his Pennsylvania rally.

Images of the bloodied former president raising his fist defiantly in the air as the Stars and Stripes fluttered in the background have only served to bolster his image among his supporters.

"Evil came for the man we admire and love so much," said the right-wing firebrand Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. "I thank God that his hand was on President Trump."

House Speaker Mike Johnson told a news channel that Trump's escape, with only a slight ear wound, was "a miraculous thing," while Senator Marco Rubio of Florida wrote on X that "God protected Trump."

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, currently serving a prison sentence for contempt of Congress, said "Trump wears the Armor of God."

Never mind that one rally-goer was killed -- a volunteer firefighter who died shielding his family -- while two others were seriously wounded.

Nor that, until his foray into Republican politics, tycoon Trump displayed a distaste for religion, even mocking believers, according to a former aide.

He also boasted in one of his books about affairs with "beautiful, famous, successful, married" women, and has been found liable by a civil court for sexual abuse.

Personality cult

Trump, who has said he was raised Presbyterian but now considers himself a "non-denominational Christian," has encouraged the attention, writing on Truth Social that "God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening."

For Natasha Lindstaedt, a political scientist at the University of Essex, the episode underscores the cult of personality that Trump and his inner circle have meticulously cultivated and reinforced over several years.

Some "personalist" leaders are dictators, others are elected, but their goal is the same: "To get people to blindly obey them and to be mystified by their superhuman qualities," she told AFP.

Trump casting himself as America's sole savior is nothing new -- but escaping the assassination attempt has elevated the rhetoric to Biblical proportions, she added.

Consider for instance, the meme circulating across conservative social media depicting Jesus Christ himself placing his hands on the 78-year-old's shoulders.

Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who co-chairs the Republican National Committee, posted the image on her Instagram page with the caption "Fear not, for I am with you."

"I'm a Christian and a Catholic by faith," Jack Prendergast, a Republican delegate from New York at the convention, told AFP. Trump "had an angel sitting on his shoulder -- the hand of God in my opinion, moved his face aside."

Such hero worship benefits both the mythologized leader and followers, said Natalie Koch, a political geographer at Syracuse University.

"By building up that cult and joining that and being part of that, they get a sense of community," she told AFP.

'Imperfect vessel'

They also gain a vehicle to pursue their political interests, from evangelicals with a religious agenda to the ultra wealthy hoping for massive tax cuts, Koch added.

And for all the criticism from liberal quarters that Trump's faith is a facade, he proved to be the "imperfect vessel" evangelicals hoped he would become, fulfilling their decades-long agenda of tilting the Supreme Court heavily conservative and overturning the national right to abortion.

Even Trump's embattled Democratic opponent President Joe Biden has begun to adopt certain Trumpian flourishes of late, telling ABC News only "Lord Almighty" could convince him to end his re-election bid amid questions about his mental acuity.

"Personality cults are really bad for democracy," said Lindstaedt, "because it gets people to blindly obey things that they normally wouldn't, they refuse to question the authority figure."

Coupled with the Supreme Court's recent decision bolstering presidential immunity, "the guardrails of democracy are not really protecting the US from whatever Trump plans on doing once he gets elected, which I think will happen."

© 2024 AFP