As a postscript to my essay, “Winners and Losers“, I offer this remarkable image.
As I wrote in that essay:
For Trump, however, it’s not all about personal branding, winning, enrichment, and self-glorification. He has become a distinctly American embodiment of “L’État, c’est moi”. He has famously declared, “I am your Warrior. I am your Justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your Retribution.” He has gone so far as to proclaim: “I am the chosen one,” “saved by God to make America great again.” He projects himself as the exemplar of the state, the guardian of its values, its authority, and its white identity culture.
Despite this unholy attempt to unify the personal and the political, Trump has often wondered if he will ever get into Heaven. Perhaps this confession betrays a form of existential panic and dread. But panic and dread are what many of us are now feeling, in the wake of Trump’s reckless actions at home and abroad. He is creating a world of literal losers — as countless people are losing their liberties and lives with each passing day.
Alas, a couple of weeks ago, after Pete Hegseth asked the American people to pray for military victory in the Middle East “in the name of Jesus Christ“, Pope Leo XIV warned against invoking Jesus’s name in the service of war. Say what you will about the history of war and the Catholic Church, Trump was so angry at Pope Leo’s comments that he posted a tirade on Truth Social calling the Pope “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy”. Trump’s AI-generated image, also posted to Truth Social, portrays him not only as a tool of the divine, but the divine itself.
In the face of backlash, Trump later took the image down, but refused to apologize for his comments on the Pope. I will let the image above speak for itself.
Notablog 