"Perfectly predictable": Dr. John Gartner on why "a malignant narcissist like Trump" sells Bibles

"Perfectly predictable": Dr. John Gartner on why "a malignant narcissist like Trump" sells Bibles
"It fits perfectly into both his personality disorder’s hypomanic grandiosity and its paranoid sense of grievance"

By CHAUNCEY DEVEGA
Senior Writer
PUBLISHED APRIL 2, 2024 5:46AM (EDT)


(Salon) American fascism is a form of political religion. It is a social force based on faith and emotion and corrupt power more than a coherent ideology grounded in reason, facts and the truth. As such, fascism is antithetical to real democracy and normal politics.

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On Tuesday, Donald Trump continued to honor Holy Week by announcing that he is selling his own version of the Bible. Trump has publicly and repeatedly stated that he is a Christian. But by definition, his behavior is blasphemous and an example of idolatry. Of course, Trump does not worship God or Jesus Christ; he has shown himself to be a megalomaniac and malignant narcissist who only worships himself (and of course money and other forms of power). Trump basically views his MAGA followers and other “Christians” as useful idiots who are a source of narcissistic energy, money and other resources for him.

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In an attempt to better understand Trump’s Bibles and how they relate to the larger democracy crisis, I recently spoke to a range of experts.

Federico Finchelstein is a professor of history at the New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College in New York. His most recent book is "A Brief History of Fascist Lies."

The MAGA movement pushes its religiosity into the most bizarre form of greed. Trump's conflation of the Bible with doing business and his own comparisons with Jesus's suffering ideas are separate dimensions of the same phenomenon, namely the fascist tendency to make the leader a God-like figure who is not exempted from corrupted practices. In this case Trump desperately needs money. Hitler and Mussolini enriched themselves by writing and selling their writings but Trump's also wants to make money with sacred texts. .........................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/04/02/perfectly-predictable-dr-john-gartner-on-why-a-malignant-narcissist-like-trump-sells-bibles/