April 5-6, 2026: A few minutes past 8 on Easter morning, as steeple bells chimed and church doors swung open all over the country, President and Nobel Peace Prize aspirant Donald J. Trump tweeted the following ultimatum to the leadership of Iran:
Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F*ckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell--JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. DONALD J. TRUMP
Putting aside for a moment that Trump was threatening a war crime, the primitive vulgarity of the threat’s language exceeds that of any world leader in recorded history--begging once again the question of to whom the word “derangement” ought to refer in the so-called Trump Derangement Syndrome.
When some friends posted the tweet on Facebook, I was sure it was an anti-Trump fake, but no. Within hours it had become national news. Our Commander in Chief had spoken thus.
That morning I scanned a sampling of the nation’s papers, expecting banner headlines announcing and denouncing a historic breach international diplomacy. I hastily looked through the front pages of The New York Times, The Wall Street Jornal, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, and The Des Moines Register. There were in some of those papers mention of a new U.S. imposed deadline for opening The Strait of Hormuz. Only USA Today noted that the deadline ultimatum was “obscenity-laced.”
In the absence of any acknowledgement of an unprecedented violation of human decency on the part of a sitting American President--what? Acceptance? A new normal? (After all, just days earlier, Trump threatened to bomb Iran “back into the Stone Ages (sic) where they belong.” This morning, as I am writing this, Trump promised that if the 8.p.m. deadline is not met to open up the strait, “a whole civilization will die.”)
Psychological projection is one of the most helpful technical terms in understanding Trump’ speech and behavior. Projection is the process of imputing to others traits or conditions that one cannot bear to acknowledge in oneself. Thus sexually obsessed persons might project their urges onto others, neurotically suspecting and accusing them of sexual excesses. In this way Trump, a multiply indicted and convicted felon, projects his criminality onto his perceived enemies: “Crooked Hillary,” “Shifty Schiff,” Letitia James, James Comey, Jerome Powell, all of the Bidens.
Trump concluded his Easter message to the Iranian people that they may soon be consigned to hell. As a projection, that would suggest that the messenger is experiencing or fearing being there. And if today’s threat is carried out, a civilization may be proceeding to its death, but it is unlikely to be Persian.
April 13, 2026: This morning Trump, apparently bruised by Leo XIV’s recent pleas for peace in the world, denounced the pope for being weak in foreign policy and soft on crime. In his social media screed, Trump wrote that Leo had been elected pope solely because he was an American, and an American pope was “the best way to deal with Donald J. Trump,” adding that, “If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.”
Possibly in an effort to demonstrate not only his temporal superiority to Pope Leo, but his theological supremacy as well, Trump also posted and AI-generated image of himself as Jesus in a dazzling white robe and scarlet shawl, anointing the forehead of a sick man while adoring others look up to him in wonder. Backgrounding the composition is a billowing American flag and the Statue of Liberty; overhead, an advancing phalanx of soldiers, jet fighters, and an eagle.
The peace that surpasses all understanding (Phillipians 4:7).
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