jQuery Slider

You are here

Trump offers Fascist Salvation, says Anglo-Catholic Psychologist

Trump offers Fascist Salvation, says Anglo-Catholic Psychologist
"Trump is the bully Christ. He embodies what some on the evangelical right need at this time-- a crude and angry gutter savior with whom to identify"

By Dr. Charles Zeiders
www.virtueonline.org
Sept. 21, 2016

In late July presidential candidate Donald J. Trump met with 900 evangelical leaders for a "conversation" in New York. He managed to gain the endorsement--or at least positive attention--of right-wing Christian leaders, who in recent elections have insisted that candidates demonstrate personal rectitude, good character, and propose conservative policies to gain their endorsement.

The question is why? Why did this strange, mean rich man gain any evangelical support at all? Why would this high profile reprobate with such problematic character appeal to anyone, let alone conservative evangelical leaders?

Trump's personal life is well known to the public. During his dozens of appearances on shock-jock Howard Stern's radio show, the thrice married reality TV celebrity conversed with Stern, degrading women and discussing sex acts as a kind of sport. During divorce proceedings with his first wife Ivana, Mr. Trump invoked the 5th amendment 97 times, presumably to avoid self-incrimination over matters of infidelity. In 2013, the presidential candidate opened the nation's first casino strip club. During his campaign he is noted for his skill for degradation of women, non-whites, Muslims, Mexicans, handicapped reporters, and legitimate challengers.

Regarding foreign policy, he demonstrates breathtaking, unapologetic ignorance and naivete. Recall that on national television he told an astonished George Stephanopoulos that Putin was not in Ukraine. In an interview he told foreign policy reporters that he would unite the Turks and the Kurds by hosting "meetings." He seems bent on alienating key allies.

On domestic policy, the GOP candidate offers abominably bad ideas. He proposes tax cuts for the very richest Americans--cuts which are predicted to escalate the national debt to levels described as cosmic. He proposes to deport 11 million undocumented workers, costing taxpayers $600 billion and creating revenue losses in the private sector totaling 1 trillion. Since Trump's mass deportations would displace persons and rip apart untold families, the policy would also create a humanitarian crisis.

So why has this aging philanderer with no foreign policy experience and incompetent plans for the American economy gained the endorsement of Jerry Falwell, Jr.? Why has megachurch reverend Robert Jeffress followed suit? Is it because credible secular Republican authorities discovered secret strengths in Trump and communicated these to the Christian leaders? Do they detect leadership abilities that lend themselves to success for the Oval Office and America?

No. In fact, just the opposite.

According to the New York Times, 50 senior GOP national security officials issued a letter announcing that "none of us will vote for Donald Trump." Mr. Trump, they opined, "lacks the character, values, and experience" to be president. They warned that he "would be the most reckless president in our history."

Other Republican luminaries proclaimed similar reservations about the most controversial presidential candidate in living memory

Past Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney denounced Trump. "He has neither the temperament nor judgment to be president."

Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson lamented that "The GOP, in putting Trump at the top of the ticket, is endorsing a brand of populism rooted in ignorance, prejudice, fear, and isolationism."

Former senator of New Hampshire Gordon Humphrey avowed that "I am ever more confirmed in my belief that Trump is a sociopath, without a conscience or feeling of shame or remorse."

Chris Christie aid Maria Comella reprehended Trump as "demagogue who preys on people's anxieties with loose information and salacious rhetoric, drumming up fear and hatred of the other."

Former Minnesota representative Vin Weber rejected Trump's candidacy as a "mistake of historic proportions."

Former top aid to Jeb Bush Sally Bradshaw opined that in Trump the Republican Party "nominated a total narcissist--a misogynist--a bigot." (She left the GOP).

Topping off these denunciatory remarks, Former Governor of New Jersey Christine Todd Whitman foreboded that Mr. Trump was threat to global security in the manner of the malignant European dictators of the last century. "Trump is employing the kind of hateful rhetoric and exploiting the insecurities of this nation, in much the way that allowed Hitler and Mussolini to rise in the lead-up to World War II."

But didn't James Dobson endorse Trump? Dr. Dobson is wise. He appears on Fox News. He hosts a family-oriented Christian radio show and promotes a Christian version of male headship. In public statements Dr. Dobson made it clear that Donald Trump will be far less the antichrist than Hillary Clinton. He even called Mr. Trump a "baby Christian."

Is it possible that, as a psychologist, Dr. Dobson observed subtleties of Mr. Trump's behavior that allowed him to infer a measured gentleness in the character of the otherwise impulsive, vituperative self-aggrandizer?

Again. No. Not all politically observant psychologists would describe Mr. Trump as a baby Christian. Although the Goldwater Rule disallows firm diagnosis of a public figure without an in person examination, some professionals describe him as a narcissist.

Political psychologist Dr. Dan McAdams wrote for the Atlantic, "For psychologists, it is almost impossible to talk about Donald Trump without using the word narcissism. Asked to sum up Trump's personality for an article in Vanity Fair, Howard Gardner, a psychologist at Harvard, responded, 'Remarkably narcissistic.' George Simon, a clinical psychologist who conducts seminars on manipulative behavior, says Trump is 'so classic that I'm archiving video clips of him to use in workshops because there's no better example' of narcissism. 'Otherwise I would have had to hire actors and write vignettes. He's like a dream come true.'"

Still maybe the evangelicals are not off the hook. Just because Mr. Trump demonstrates personal foibles and knowledgeable statesman beg their own party not to vote for him, and Harvard psychologists judge him to be a narcissist, does not mean that Mr. Trump's presidency would be a disaster.

Does it?

In an interview with American Thinker, Dr. Sam Vaknin, an expert on the narcissistic personality, warned that Mr. Trump exhibits features of malignant narcissism--an extreme form of narcissism that coincides with criminality, sadism, and paranoia. "To my mind, Trump is the most perfect example I have ever come across of a malignant and, probably, psychopathic narcissist."

Noting that no diagnosis is definitive without an in-person examination, Dr. Vaknin went on to remark, "You just have to look at Trump's business history to extrapolate America's future under a President Trump. Narcissists are unstable and go through repeated cycles of self-destruction (with other people usually paying the heft of the price)."

He contended that "Narcissists tend to be divisive, vindictive, confrontational, aggressive, hate-filled, raging, incoherent, judgment-impaired, and irrational. Narcissists are junkies: they are addicted to attention and will go to any extreme to secure it. Narcissists are liars, confabulators, and miserable failures (although some of them, like Trump, are geniuses at disguising the fact that they are, in fact, losers)."

Dr. Vaknin queried, "Is this the kind of person you want in the White House?"

In an answer to Dr. Vaknin's rhetorical question, other mental health experts remark, "No. We don't want him in the White House." In fact, 18 respected Jungian analysts contributed to the recently published Clear and Present Danger: Narcissism in the Era of Donald Trump.

The volume contained a compelling essay by psychiatrist Leonard Cruz who tendered the notion that Mr. Trump's ridiculous superiority complex appeals to elements of the electorate who feel marginalized by the establishment and left behind by modernity. To these Mr. Trump offers himself as a great man who has vanquished his competitors. For support he will vanquish the enemies (real or imagined) of his base and will make them great again. He will, in fact, save them.

Indeed Mr. Trump appeals to the politically, economically, and culturally disenfranchised evangelical Christians.

When hawkish, conservative Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin asked faith and politics expert Peter Wehner what appeal Trump had for evangelicals, he averred that "...many Trump supporters who are...evangelicals are terribly worried about the state of America, enraged at the so-called 'Republican establishment,' and feeling increasingly powerless and desperate. There's also a growing grievance culture among...the right, and Trump gives voice to those grievances, their bitterness, their anger. They have...given up on traditional politics and the political system, and so they find themselves supporting someone they believe will overthrow the tables in the temple courts."

And there we have it. Mr. Trump is the bully Christ. He embodies what some on the evangelical right need at this time-- a crude and angry gutter savior with whom to identify--someone who identifies whom to hate and whom to hurt--someone to make the 'enemy other' pay for what ails.

Mr. Trump offers Fascist Salvation. He would make a fine Reactionary in Chief.

Writing for the National Review the attorney David French warns evangelical leaders, "If you back Trump, for the rest of your days, you will be forced to live with having had a hand in fracturing our nation on the basis of race, discarding the sanctity of marriage, and scorning honesty itself -- all for the chance, the remote chance, that Trump will make one or two decent Supreme Court picks. You will be selling your integrity for the most meager of returns."

But Jerry Falwell, Jr, Pastor Robert Jeffress, and Dr. James Dobson all endorse the baby Christian Mr. Trump for president.

To say the least, Mr. Trump's life and doctrine are ill-suited to the expressed values of the Christian project. For the GOP candidate to gain the support of any Christian leader is an achievement.

Perhaps that is why Pat Robertson told him, "You inspire us all."

Charles Zeiders, Psy.D. is a Clinical and Forensic Psychologist who practices in the greater Philadelphia area. He teaches at several graduates schools, including Eastern University and Reformed Episcopal Seminary. His books include The Clinical Christ and Wall Street Revolution. He is an expert in the psychology of religion and psychological assessment. Correspondence may be sent to drzeiders@drzeiders.com or www.drzeiders.com

Subscribe
Get a bi-weekly summary of Anglican news from around the world.
comments powered by Disqus
Trinity School for Ministry
Go To Top