Trump, Jesus, And the Billionaire Class
David Shuster on annihilation threats, counterfeit halos, and narcissism as governing principle.
Cliff’s Note: This is what David Shuster does better than almost anyone — he takes the thing you felt in your gut and pins it to the wall with receipts. Trump threatened to wipe out a civilization, photoshopped himself into Jesus Christ, and then looked a reporter in the eye and said it was a Red Cross ad. And most of the mainstream press moved on by lunch.
We didn’t. Blue Amp doesn’t move on.
We name it, we frame it, and we make sure you’ve got the words to explain to your uncle at Thanksgiving why this isn’t normal. If that’s worth something to you, subscribe. We’re building the media operation the left has needed for twenty years and we’re doing it without a single billionaire’s permission.
By David Shuster
There was a time when the American presidency demanded at least a passing acquaintance with restraint, reality, and reverence. That time has passed. In its place sits the narcissistic lunatic Donald Trump. Within the span of one week, old man Orange threatened apocalyptic destruction, dabbled in self-righteous deification, and then insisted with a straight face, that what everyone plainly saw was something else.
Let’s begin with the obvious: no serious leader speaks casually about annihilating a “whole civilization.” But Donald Trump issued that threat on social media so nonchalantly it was as if the obliteration of millions of people would be no more consequential than a missed tee time.
And yet, as disturbing as that careless Trump rhetoric was, Trump eclipsed it a week later with something even more surreal. Trump circulated an image depicting himself as Jesus Christ.
Not metaphorically. Not symbolically. Literally styled in the iconography of Christianity’s central figure. It is difficult to overstate how grotesque this is.
For believers and non-believers alike, Jesus is not a branding opportunity or a punchline. But Trump’s vanity and ego have no bounds.
And when countless MAGA faithful expressed their anger and called Trump’s post “gross blasphemy,” Trump did not offer an apology or provide any reflection. Instead, he did what Trump always does. He lashed out and reframed reality.
Asked by a reporter about the image, Trump declared, “I thought it was me as a doctor, and had to do with the Red Cross, as a Red Cross worker, which we support. In the photo, Trump’s clothing is reminiscent of clothing worn in Jesus’ time and is NOT an outfit a doctor would wear. There is no reference in the photo to the Red Cross.
Trump said “only the fake news” could suggest he was depicting himself as Jesus, ignoring the criticism he received from his own religious supporters.
Trump delivered the rhetorical equivalent of pointing at the sun and insisting it is the moon.. The Trump as Jesus image was unmistakable, the symbolism deliberate. To deny it after the fact is to engage in the kind of gaslighting that has been a hallmark of Trump’s public life. Truth is whatever serves him in the moment. Reality is negotiable. Accountability is for other people.
What ties these episodes together—the threats, the messianic imagery, the absurd denials—is not just reckless jackassary. It is narcissism elevated to governing principle. Trump does not simply seek power; he seeks adoration. He does not merely want to lead; he wants to be worshipped. And when the world fails to comply, he rewrites the script until his most loyal followers nod along.
This would be troubling enough in a private citizen. In a U.S. President, it is insane. Democracies rely on a shared understanding of reality. They require leaders who can distinguish between truth and fantasy, between strength and spectacle. When those lines blur, institutions weaken, allies lose confidence, and adversaries take notice.
There is also a deeper, more corrosive effect. By trivializing both the threat of mass destruction and the sacred symbols of religion, Trump cheapens everything he touches. Words lose meaning. Images lose significance. Public discourse becomes a carnival of outrage and denial where nothing is too serious to be mocked and nothing too absurd to be defended.
There are already some Trump defenders who are dismissing the Jesus image as just another Trump controversy, another day ending in “y.”
That is precisely the problem. The normalization of Trump’s behavior accelerates our society’s decay. Each outlandish Trump statement, each brazen Trump falsehood, lowers the bar a little further, until what once would have been disqualifying becomes merely “on brand.”
But it should not be on brand for any American leader to flirt with annihilation, to cast himself in divine imagery, and then to lie about it with casual indifference. That is not strength. It is not authenticity. It is not even politics as usual. It is a profound failure of judgment and character.
The presidency demands more—more humility, more honesty, more respect for the gravity of the role. What Trump offers instead is a spectacle of ego and evasion, a performance in which truth is optional and responsibility is always someone else’s burden.
If there is a lesson to be drawn, it may lie in the parables themselves. Jesus often warned of those who would come in impressive guises, who would speak loudly and draw crowds, but whose actions would not align with their words. “By their fruits you will know them,” he said—a call to judge not by appearances but by outcomes.
The outcome of the Trump era is clear.
The United States, under Trump, has become a good shepherd of a very particular flock: not the poor, the meek, or the forgotten, but the powerful and the wealthy.
Trump’s policies and rhetoric have consistently elevated those already holding influence, offering tax cuts, deregulation, and political cover to the billionaire class and large corporations. Trump has tended a gilded pasture where the sheep are already well fed. Everybody else has to tighten their belts and budgets.
In the United States under Trump, morality and basic humanity are for losers. Whereas Jesus spoke of turning the other cheek, loving one’s enemies, and welcoming the stranger… Trump and his sycophants cast opponents not as neighbor to be understood but as threats to be defeated. Whereas Jesus preached mercy, Trump prizes dominance.
There is also the matter of truth. In the biblical narrative, truth is a cornerstone—“the truth shall set you free.” Trump’s relationship with truth is non-existent.
The most striking difference, though, involves the concept of sacrifice. Jesus’s story at its core is about self-sacrifice—giving up power, enduring suffering, and ultimately laying down his life for others.
Trump’s narrative, by contrast, is about self-preservation and self-advancement. Trump’s public statements and actions consistently emphasize personal victory, personal grievance, and personal legacy.
In another age, Trump would have been confined to the margins, a sideshow curiosity barking at passersby from behind a canvas freak show tent. But in the U.S. under MAGA, the rotting old man who toys with visions of annihilation and crowns himself in counterfeit halos is not laughed off the stage but ushered back for an encore.
It is tempting to treat all of this as mere Trump GOP buffoonery, the harmless capering of a man intoxicated by his own reflection. That temptation should be resisted. There is nothing harmless in a leader who toys with catastrophe, nothing amusing in a public figure who dissolves the boundary between truth and nonsense. The damage is real, even if the performance is absurd.
And the spectacle continues: the threats, the posturing, the ludicrous denials delivered with the confidence of a man who has never been meaningfully contradicted. The tragedy is not that Donald Trump behaves this way—that was always a given—but that a great many citizens have grown so accustomed to the act that they no longer recognize it for what it is: not strength, not leadership, but a gaudy, relentless assault on reason and faith itself.
Because of his oversized ego and acute sensitivity, no one relentlessly self-promotes like Trump does. He always believed that he was annointed to lead the world. But he also acts like a 79-year-old child------psychopathic, demanding and vengeful.. He hates and targets anyone who dares to criticize him. His lawlessness and lust for glory, power and wealth are shocking and unacceptable. His love for the almighty dollar determines every decision he makes. He has proven to be a very dangerous demagogue.
Donald Trump was never raised to have any feelings for others, or to have any ethical thoughts at all. This reality is now in a dying brain free fall. His brain function is failing, and that makes hime even more dangerous to the whole world. Those who are in positions to act MUST do so now. They need to locate their backbones, and honor the oaths they made...to our Constitution, our country, and to all of us, and put a stop to the madness. He also breaks the law virtually every day. They have plenty of justifications for taking action to protect our world and our future.