Key Points – President Donald Trump’s use of religious and messianic rhetoric has reportedly intensified since an assassination attempt in summer 2024 and into his second term, with recent posts like “I’m on a mission from God.”
-Having previously shared supporters’ comparisons of him to religious figures, Trump now increasingly employs such language himself, describing his survival as an “act of God” for a divine purpose.
-This shift, analyzed by commentators like Michael Kruse, suggests his documented narcissism may have evolved into notions of omnipotence, raising concerns about how a leader believing they are divinely anointed aligns with constitutional checks and balances.
Does Trump Have a God complex?
Donald Trump has long had a very high regard for himself, which is well-known. And he has sometimes given this a religious dimension.
In his first term, and after his presidency, the president has shared images of himself alongside Jesus Christ, and in one case, the message “Jesus is the Greatest. President @realDonaldTrump is the second greatest.”
Trump has called himself “The Chosen One,” and shared a post with the notion that people in Israel “love him like he’s the King of Israel. They love him like he is the second coming of God.”
However, Politico noted this week that Trump has ramped up the God talk ever since his assassination attempt last summer.
That continued this week, when Trump posted an image of himself with the caption “I’m on a mission from God.” It’s a reference to the movie The Blues Brothers, but also a phrase associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory.
“Does Trump Actually Think He’s God?” is the headline on the story, written by Politico’s Michael Kruse.
God and Man at the White House
Per the story, Trump has called his surviving the assassination attempt “an act of God.” After winning the election, he has stated, “God spared my life for a reason” and “I was saved by God to make America great again.” How the family of Corey Comperatore, the man killed that day, feels about that remains uncertain.
Some people react to a near-death experience with humility, but it appears that’s not what happened with Trump.
“Over the last 10 or so months since Butler, however, and especially since his reelection and the start of his second administration,” Kruse wrote, “Trump’s outlook has shifted in essence from stuff happens and nothing much matters to something happened and it couldn’t matter more. His rhetoric has gone from borderline nihilistic to messianic.”
The other big change? Trump’s supporters, including those in the Christian conservative world, have long talked this way about him, and Trump has occasionally retweeted or reposted those thoughts. But Trump has not always echoed such sentiments in his own rhetoric until the last year or so.
“Now, though, Trump havedoes it, too. And that matters. It matters, some say, because it highlights how his well-documented narcissism and grandiosity has metastasized into notions of omnipotence, invincibility, and infallibility,” Kruse writes. He later ties this in with Trump, earlier this month, seeming to joke that he wanted to be the next pope, and posting an AI-generated image of himself dressed in papal vestments.
Trump, as noted in the piece, was well-versed in the language of Christianity when he first started running for president in 2015, once accidentally saying “Two Corinthians” rather than second about the biblical verse.
Is This Healthy?
The question that must be asked is, is it healthy in the realm of American politics for one candidate to believe he is anointed by God? How can a God-anointed leader fit into the Constitutional system of government that has checks and balances, when presumably senators, Congressmen, and judges do not share that same holiness?
Mission from God or not, Trump’s power is still limited, especially when it comes to things like ending wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, or having every single court decision go his way.
What happens after Trump is done being president- will his successor require anointing by God as well? And who decides who’s been anointed?
“Invoking the power of the unified people and God gives Trump an awesome and unquestionable power — whoever defies Trump is at risk of defying the people and God. It’s impossible to argue against Trump when he claims the power of God,” Jennifer Mercieca wrote in response to Trump’s second inaugural address.
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter
Trump Is In Trouble
