Trump constantly talks about, no, that is wrong, brags about how much he loves this country.
But his actions tell a different story. His behavior, what he supports and condones, and what he is willing to do are not the acts of a person who professes a love of country but a clear sense of megalomania and dictatorial tendencies.
Trump is incapable of having any feelings for anyone other than himself. He never has and never will. Trump is the classical narcissist:
“Trump is a “mirror-hungry” leader, that is, a narcissist whose private feelings of inadequacy must quenched by the constant admiration of his followers. Hence, the nonstop rallies in front of Trump followers were filled by chants of hatred, threats of violence, and constant references to Trump’s serial lies and fantasy world. Yet the followers make the leader. In particular, Post describes the followers as “ideal-hungry” or “wounded” followers, who look to mirror-hungry leaders for salvation from some wounds or perceived injustices. ”— The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President.
One would think and believe the American populous would see and understand that Trump is utterly incapable of any cogent leadership required to lead a country like ours. After all, we are used to having a say in our governance, which means for Trump to be able to succeed in his ultimate goal of dictatorship, he will have to do something drastic that would give him the authority and power to exert his will over the people and make them believe it is what they want.
But, in reality, our so-called ‘say’ is only as good as we, the people, are willing to exercise our voice from a position of knowledgeable understanding and not from stirred-up grievances created by questionable sources proffering vapid unsubstantiated conspiracy as fact, along with overzealous racial, misogynistic hate.
Recognizing my previous statement may be somewhat questionable and requires me to acknowledge the behavior of Trump supporters, as a friend told me, is essentially that of a cult. As such, Trump is their cult leader, and since cult followers will believe whatever the leader tells them, it will take force for more potent than simple and dependable logic to get them to see Trump cares not one iota for them, nor does he love this country as he so often claims.
My friend’s comment troubled me because what I know about people in cults is that they essentially give up their identity and take on the identity and persona of the cult leader, eventually becoming wholly subservient and committed to the cult.
Their level of subservience often leads to them doing things not in their interests, like giving them access to their bank accounts if they have money, submitting to the cult leader’s sexual demands, or in some cases, taking their own lives, believing doing so they will enter it cult’s version of paradise.
I believe tagging the MAGA a cult is indeed appropriate as those who are Trump followers are no longer Republicans in the sense of Lincoln. Nor are the believers in democracy for the apparent and simple reason their cult leader, Trump, does not believe in democracy he never has.
He doesn’t believe in democracy because he has no love for the country that has enabled him to accumulate the wealth he has obtained.
Trump professes his love of country. He comes out on stage and hugs the American flag or does one of his snap-to salutes to the flag that will cause the uninitiated to falsely believe Trump was in the military because the only time they have seen anyone salute that smartly was a military person in uniform or someone who is former military.
The thing is, Trump’s hugging the flag or smartly saluting the flag is no indication he loves the country.
It is just his shtick. It is all part of his plan to get people to believe his lies that democracy is failing and that the only way to preserve and protect it is to put him back in the White House.
Trump is professing love for the country. In reality, the only person he cares about and loves is himself.
He plays the ‘oh-so-concerned former President, claiming his love for the country and support for the Constitution. One has to admit he is good at this. He has convinced these individuals he is the only one with the skill to turn around, which he calls a failing government. No one has the instincts he has, the ability to get dictators like Putin to listen and stop what they are doing, or the fact he will threaten China with tariffs on such a level it will break their economy so that they will bow to his will.
Trump has all but designated himself as the second coming of Christ and, sadly and terrifyingly, convinced enough people to continue in their support of him.
He has convinced the wealthiest of the wealthy to contribute millions to his campaign, knowing Trump will use it to pay his mountains of legal bills. Interestingly, they don’t seem to mind, and the only possible logical reason for that is Project 2025.
While the creators of this project profess it will bring the country back to the intended purposes of the founders, it is a plan to place more power in the hands of a President and in the minds of conservatives to accomplish what Grover Norquist has always wanted to do: reduce government to a size that is downable in a bathtub.
Trump does not love this country. He has yet to learn what love of country truly means as he does not know what love means. For clarity, when I speak of love, I am not talking about romantic love, which the Greeks called Eros.
I am speaking of Agape, a form of love involving giving and caring for one’s fellow man. It’s a form of love that requires self-sacrifice, putting others before oneself, and having consideration and care for their fellow men and women. It is unselfish and self-sacrificing. Two things Trump is not. Trump likes to talk about how he cares and does things for others because ‘he felt it was the right thing to do.’ But there is always a catch; from that perspective, it does not fit the definition of Agape love.
Trump loves to brag about what he does with the idea that it will make him look good in the public eye. With Agape, there is no bragging or calling a press conference to announce what you are doing or have done. One does so with no regard for accolades.
His professed love of the country is nothing more than empty words that fade into the wind to the sound of one-handed claps, to which he is the only one who seems to hear them.
Trump is attempting to march the country toward an authoritarian form of governance by which he will become the first dictator of the United States.
Why else does he talk about the country in such negative terms? We are not without our faults, and our form of democratic governance is not perfect, but compared to other forms of governance, it has shown itself to be far more desirable.
Donald J. Trump perceives himself as the ‘strong man’ the United States needs to bring it back to its greatness. In his addled mind, he perceives himself as the great savior of our democracy when, in reality, he wants to destroy it. Nothing he talks about is for the preservation of democracy. His support for Project 2025, irrespective of his denial, is all about power and centralized control at the expense of democracy. Trump’s protestations around his love and support are empty, hollow words directed at the weak, ill-informed, and un-informed voter. But what they hear is what they want to hear.
And for Trump, it is all he needs from such individuals. It resonates with what he believes in himself and, in a sense, as described in the following:
“They want to be the agents, not the victims, of history. They identify with God’s power and believe they are godlike. That is their basic madness. They are overcome by some archetype; their egos have expanded psychotically so that they cannot tell where they begin and the godhead leaves off. It is not hubris, not pride; it is inflation of the ego to its ultimate — confusion between him who worships and that which is worshiped. Man has not eaten God; God had eaten man.”— Phillip K. Dick, The Man In The High Castle, p 38.
Trump’s narcissism has taken him down a path of no return. He cannot turn back and become something he is not and never has been: A caring human capable of love for anyone other than himself.
Over the years, his narcissism got worse, and winning the presidency magnified his delusions of grandeur to the level we see now, where the love he professes to have for the country is only for himself, as it always has been and always will be.
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