Donald Trump’s MAGA followers are just one step from drinking the Kool-Aid 

According to himself and some of his followers, God actually chose Donald Trump to become the president of the United States.

Divine mandate might be a stretch, but Trump can be quoted on it. A relatively small group of Americans—and a disproportionate core of far-right Republicans—were willing to go along with that premise. After all, who can question God? Despite Trump’s failure to carry the popular vote, it seems that heavenly beings shoe-horned him into the White House.

Contrary to all the scriptural references on the importance of personal choice and free agency, Trump brought with him an entourage of fanatics who believe it was their solemn duty to derail the voice of other Americans, hijack the majority will of the people and enforce a sort of Iran-style, far-right regime on the majority of the country’s citizens.

Fortunately, he stopped short on making head-coverings the law. True to racial bigotry, he was big on the notion that America’s blood shouldn’t be tainted by the darker races and, though we all suspect that he’s illiterate, his racial mantra seems to have come directly from the writings of Hitler.

Backed by Christian evangelicals, neo-Nazis, business tycoons, the just-plain-ignorant Archie Bunker look-a-likes and people who believed that a fertilized egg can wear an overcoat and read a book, Trump did the devil’s work in stifling the votes and voices of Americans. Even the sacrosanct Supreme Court was successfully packed with cronies who could never have passed muster in honest congressional hearings.

Each of his SCOTUS appointees shared the same fatal flaw; none of them would give straight answers to Congress’s questions. They were evasive and some of them outright lied. And yet, they were all approved.

Since then, our nation’s highest court has been compromised, showing an allegiance not to law but, to the handful of fundamentalists and zealots who had placed the justices on the bench.

The people who elected Trump understood that he was everything he’d been accused of—a business cheat and fraudster, a shameless philanderer, the undisputed king of liars, a rapist, a bully and an arthropod exoskeleton filled with green slime. That didn’t matter. The premise was simple: Put a man in the White House who will do anything to have the adoration of his fans, and he’ll deliver. Sadly, only the extremists got their way.

If you’re one of those who believes that Trump was God’s chosen, please keep in mind that God also chose Jim Jones (People’s Temple), Marshall Herff Applewhite and Bonnie Lu Nettles (Heaven’s Gate) and David Koresh (Branch Davidians) These people, some of the most famous of 20th century cult leaders, all had something in common. They used people, emptied the bank accounts of believers, exploited their followers for sexual gratification and sought vengeance when challenged or criticized. All enjoyed the temporary joy of controlling people but, in the end, each of them pushed their followers to the grave.

Anyone who believes that they’re protected by God’s “anointed” needs to think twice about the risks of following blindly. In Trump’s case, the belief that he would act in the service of other Americans was a tragic joke. Nevertheless, for those who drank the Trump Kool-Aid, there’s still a chance to save our country.

I hear some people justifying their support of Trump by extolling the successes of his presidency, and I just have to wonder what they’ve been smoking. A common thread is the notion that Trump did what he’d promised in his campaign speeches and had been, overall, a great president. Really?

Kool-Aid fans, here’s a brief summary of the Trump administration so you can gloat on “the Donald’s” accomplishments:

1) Trump’s cabinet appointees and key advisors were an endless chorus of musical chairs. There’s never been another administration in which leadership positions were so predictably vacated. The delusional Sen. Mike Lee may say that a vote for Biden is a vote for chaos and that a vote for Trump supports law and order, but even a school child can see it’s just the opposite.
2) Promising a much-needed tax-cut, Trump made sure that big business got a windfall and that his personal finances would enjoy multi-million-dollar gains. That tax cut was far from providential. It facilitated the proliferation of more billionaires, allowed the mega-corporations enormous untaxed profits, helped create an extra $7 trillion in national debt and bolstered the gap between the haves and have-nots. The worst part: The Trump tax cut made it impossible for the U.S. to have sufficient revenue to continue funding the government and, in the end, it may well be the beginning of a Social Security and Medicare disaster.
3) Trump’s preference for white people was clearly not something God gave him. He attracted the support of white supremacist groups, simply because he was and is one of them. He held only contempt for the “shit countries” of the world with their “rapists and murderers.”
4) He turned the Justice Department into part of the executive branch, defying the most basic premises of the U.S. Constitution in its demands for distinct separation of powers. The use of DOJ leadership was employed to steer valid investigations into the dead-letter file, and he has vowed that, in a second term, he will employ the DOJ to destroy his enemies and detractors.
5) He started to build a border wall but failed to get the Mexican government to pay for it. In the end, his administration was successful in curbing legal immigration but did nothing to slow the flow of undocumented arrivals.
6) His promises to revive America’s rust-belt industrial areas were a failure, and he managed to see economic slowing, even before the COVID pandemic. So, do you still think that there’s a reason to praise Trump for his last presidency? If you do, I think you’re one of the faithful who will be drinking that refreshing Kool-Aid.

The author is a retired businessman, novelist, columnist and former Vietnam-era Army assistant public information officer. He resides in Riverton with his wife, Carol, and their adorable and ferocious “Poppy.” comments@cityweekly.net