This feels unhealthy to me, but of course, it's parked right there at Trump International Golf Course now, because why not? It's a Trump property, and if he wants to decorate with assorted artworks promoting the man, the myth, the legend, I guess that's his business. It's just that when he does stuff like this,
it's hard not to feel like he's sending a very political message:
The White House moved the official portrait of former President Barack Obama to a new location in the building’s Grand Foyer, replacing it with a painting of President Donald Trump with his fist raised in the air right after last year’s assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The portrait appears to be based on a photo of then-candidate Trump, bloodied and surrounded by Secret Service agents, still onstage after being shot at the campaign event. That image, along with Trump’s words to “fight, fight, fight,” became a hallmark of Trump’s bid for a second term.
"Appears to be"? Of course it is. Trump didn't just suddenly find himself like a martyr, you know. His cult believes that what didn't kill him made him stronger.
I'm not Christian enough to be appalled by the idolatry parts, even though I've been documenting it as a sign of a dark turn. And it could be that Trump is just an egomaniac, and everyone knows how to appease the Brazen Beast (ten heads, one trump, and drunken whores riding on his back is quite the image, no?) but of course, if Americans all know it--people abroad know it too. But I am American enough not to see a political movement behaving like an extremist religious one, even persecuting nonbelievers for the blasphemy of denying the articles of Trumpist faith, like the "STOLLEN!" 2020 election.
Art has emotional power. When Trump longs to depict himself beside the great presidents from history, he wants people to believe he belongs there through the sheer propaganda of being seen among them. His political minions see what he wants and pay him their compliments in his desired currency.
But it's not American. We shouldn't want kings or false idols to worship--our political figures are just American people doing a job for the American people. That's how our system is supposed to work. We aren't supposed to see Trump as always right--or even good if he's not. These narrow beings, their heads stuffed with straw, are making an idol of him because he bestows privileges for their devotion.
But I guess anyone can be fooled by pomp sometimes, under the circumstances. Isn't he sometimes quite the lamb?
Careful. Look to who is getting fleeced.
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