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Trump’s critics keep mistaking provocation for prophecy. But the man himself has never claimed to be anything more than a sinner trying — and failing — to get into heaven.

When will the progressive left learn that Donald Trump is not the Messiah… he’s just a very naughty boy.

It should be obvious to anyone who has listened to the US President for more than 60 seconds — admittedly a test of endurance — that for all his bluster, he claims only to be a deeply flawed individual.

Not the Messiah — Just Ask Him

The US President told Fox and Friends last year that he was … “[trying] to get to heaven if possible,” but added that he was “not doing well” and was “at the bottom of the totem pole”.

Doesn’t sound like a Messiah complex to me. Far from it.

Back in 2021, Trump told the congregation at First Baptist Church in Dallas:

“Our country needs a savior right now. And our country has a savior. And it’s not me. It’s somebody much higher up than me. Much higher.”

There’s plenty more, but you get the drift. Trump is not short of confidence, but he has never pretended divinity. Not even close.

In August last year, he told journalists that he hoped, maybe, ending wars around the world might help him to sneak into heaven.

Parsing Memes Like Encyclicals

With all that background, I was pretty surprised when otherwise intelligent people interpreted Trump’s ‘Jesus’ meme as a boast that He was equivalent to our Lord and Saviour.

This is the man whose rhetorical style falls somewhere between stand-up comedy and a bar fight. And now we’re parsing his memes as if they were encyclicals.

If he was depicting himself as Jesus, it was clearly a joke. Trump is actually quite well known for his jokes.

Isn’t that one of the Left’s major problems with Trump? That he is baboonish and inappropriate?

But it seemed pretty obvious he was depicting himself as the Pope, not Jesus.

Trump v the Pope

The meme came right after a very public spat with the Pope, who had criticised Trump’s war with Iran.

The Pope had claimed that war is never right, which would certainly have been news to Moses, and Gideon, and Samson, and Deborah, and David.

The Pope also claimed that God will never bless those who pick up the sword, which would certainly have been news to the Apostle Paul, who wrote that God gives governments the sword so that they can deal with injustice and evil.

Trump shot back that the Pope should stay out of politics. And besides, Trump was doing a better job at fixing the world than the know-nothing Pope.

Cue meme.

Cue outrage.

Cue the internet declaring, within minutes, that Trump had not only compared himself to Christ but had effectively kicked off the end times.

Somewhere, no doubt, a man with a podcast and a ring light was urgently explaining how this fulfilled 38 separate prophecies and a footnote in Revelation.

Spare me.

A Joke that Nobody Laughed At

Trump now claims that the meme was supposed to depict him as a doctor. An excuse so unconvincing it almost circles back to being funny.

I think Vice President JD Vance got closer to the truth when he told journalists that Trump posted the meme as a joke and deleted it when he realised no-one laughed.

It’s unusual for Trump to delete an online post. I stand to be corrected, but I can’t remember him ever doing that.

But he deleted this one, such was the furore created among Catholics and evangelicals.

I wasn’t bothered by it a bit.

For all his bluster, Trump has never claimed to be anything other than a sinner who is unworthy of heaven. So he clearly wasn’t equating himself with Jesus, except as a joke.

More likely, Trump was trolling the Pope.

Whatever the case, anyone who has paid any attention to Donald Trump this past decade knows he’s not the Messiah, and nor has he ever claimed to be.

He’s something far more familiar — and, depending on your tolerance for chaos, far more entertaining: a deeply flawed man with a gift for provocation, a talent for mischief, and an almost supernatural ability to make his critics take him more seriously than he takes himself.

In other words, exactly what he appears to be.

A very naughty boy.

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Republished with thanks to The James Macpherson Report. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.