The world must beware the cult of Trump
Kevin Rafferty says the perversely iconoclastic new president’s dangerously simplistic world view and imaginative takes on reality portend turbulent times for not just America, but globally as well
Do you believe in The Donald, the almighty father, re-creator of the world? And in Don Junior and Eric, sons and heirs to the golden Trump Organisation, and daughter Ivanka and husband Jared Kushner, who, with The Donald, will be the holy trinity to renew the face of the Earth? For theirs is the presidency, and the power and the glory of the greatest nation on Earth. But maybe not for ever and ever, and certainly not Amen.
I hope my Christian confreres will forgive my mishmashing of the creed and doxology to the Lord’s Prayer – but how else to explain the rise and rise of Donald Trump?
Watch: Trump wins White House in stunning upset
Trump promised to heal the wounds of a badly divided nation. He has not kept his promise
Few cults, or political parties, have leaders as narcissistic as Trump, or as determinedly iconoclastic. No other cult is an elected and nuclear-armed government with a leader who has mused what’s the point of having nuclear weapons if there is no intention to use them.
On Saturday morning, Hong Kong time, Trump will take the oath of office as US president: the American – and world – order will change.
Immediately after he was elected, Trump promised to heal the wounds of a badly divided nation.
He has not kept his promise. Far from healing, Trump has shattered the convention that America has only one president at a time: he let loose a torrent of Twitter edicts, effectively running a parallel presidency to incumbent Barack Obama.