By now you know what happened.
President Donald Trump, up to his neck in the Iran quagmire and thus perhaps more angry than usual, lashed out at Pope Leo XIV for doing what popes do: urging peace, while pointing out that the efforts of the Trump administration to paint its war as the Ninth Crusade was not Christianity in its highest form.
No doubt you've read all or part of it.
So the "what" being established, I want to explore an aspect that is being lost in the noise and thunder:
Why?
Why would a struggling and isolated leader, having failed to lure his erstwhile allies into saving his butt in Iran, start tongue-lashing the pope, a beloved figure internationally, but particularly in the United States, and especially in his hometown, Chicago? A pope who, remember, wasn't doing anything beyond normal pope stuff — promoting harmony, encouraging brotherhood. That's like blasting Mr. Rogers for being neighborly.
You would think that anyone with half a grip, his back against the wall, closing the Strait of Hormuz himself because Iran won't open it, would not pick this battle. It's like a man in a blazing room setting fire to one sofa that isn't burning.
Again: Why?
If the answer isn't crystal clear — and really, it should be, by now — here's a clue:
Last May, when Leo was named pope, Trump distributed an AI picture of himself, Donald Trump, in the garments of the Vicar of Christ. Because — and forgive me, this is obvious, but so much so that it gets overlooked — it's all about him. He is the subject of all sentences, the cynosure of all eyes, and anyone else — anyone else — who isn't actively groveling before him is an insult and a threat. There is no Congress. No courts. No law. No pope. He is the pope. Donald Trump, pontifex maximus.
In his own mind To me, Donald Trump is a morality tale about the futility of ego. He suffers from a grandiosity so bottomless that being immensely rich, the president of the United States, adored by millions, the golden spoon stirring the world pot for the last decade, are not enough. Nothing is ever enough. He is King Midas, breaking his teeth on gilt apples, starving in a room full of food.
That's the only way any of this makes sense. It explains his every action.
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There may be hope yet.
ReplyDeleteI'm an atheist & don't like the pope.
ReplyDeleteBut that's because he's a South Sider & a White Sox fan, which makes you a born loser!
But seriously, he's gone back to the old popely habit of wearing those absurd pope dresses & other weird clothing they wear, so they can lord their alleged greatness over us unworthy peasants!
At least his predecessor managed to usually wear more normal looking clothes!
Considering you're an atheist and don't like Pope Leo, his wardrobe shouldn't bother you, and you wouldn't be one of his "unworthy peasants." It's kind of like Trump being so bothered by what reporters, talk show hosts, popes, door dash delivery people, think of him. Don't worry about it. We'll handle the Pope. Anyway, for all we know, you may run down the street to your neighborhood 7-11 dressed in a powder blue leisure suit complete with nehru collar that you've been hoping would come back in style
DeleteI don't waste money at overpriced 7-11s & have never ever worn a leisure suit or nehru collar!
DeleteIn answer to the Pope’s attire, anyone can wear anything they want these days and it’s socially acceptable. That includes the Pope. Although perhaps it’s the Sox hat that is irking the Cubs fan.
ReplyDeleteHere is what I don't get. We seem to agree that Trump acts in a purely transactional manner; the goal of his actions is to benefit himself. But then why does he do things, totally gratuitous, that will obviously harm his profile, popularity, and influence? Is there really no one in his inner circle allowed to comment on a proposed post or statement? I am thinking here of such things as depicting the Obamas as apes, posting an image of himself as Jesus, and attacking the pope. He is obviously not helping himself.
ReplyDeleteTruth social a money sink if there ever was one is owned by Trump mainly.
DeleteHe posts things on there hope of going viral. He needs the clicks to up its paltry ad revenue.
It looks much like his casinos ,University, steaks, this country ,it's all going in the toilet
joel, you're ignoring the fact that , in addition to his many other failings as a human being, his brains are fucking scrambled.
DeleteBut he received far more attention for his addled comments than the Pope did for his, and isn't that the point nowadays?
Deletepgw, doesn't that mean it's no longer about trump, and all about his enablers?
DeleteGreat column as always. I had to laugh at pathetic Vance. A joke? Trump? He doesn’t understand humor. The only jokes he is capable of are nasty ones about other people. This was an attempt by Vance to get back into Dear Leader’s good graces. Obviously, he is on the slippery slope to nowhere because he was sent with two realtors to Pakistan to negotiate “peace” which had no chance of succeeding and Trump knew it. It was a set up. The Secretary of State, whose job is diplomacy, too big shoes Rubio, got to go to some low class fight in Miami with Dear Leader. Pathetic all around. Unbelievable that the sycophants still don’t know that all of them will end up under the bus eventually.
ReplyDeleteNot to worry. You are not alone in that. Donald also thinks he’s the Pope. And The Messiah, and God. Krishna anyone?
ReplyDeleteEveryone in his inner circle is there because they won't ever block an impulse. He is so psychology damaged that he can't acknowledge an impulsive misstep. His administration won't be studied by historians, but rather by aberrant psychologists and crime reconstruction experts.
ReplyDeleteThey are there because they are making wealth and power for themselves. They wouldn't be there if they weren't getting their daily fix.
DeleteAnd they can get threatened or publically lied about if they turn on him.
DeleteCompletely unrelated to this pathetic circus...The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, founded in 1786, one of the oldest U.S. newspapers, and the first published west of the Allegheny Mountains, was saved from closure by a non-profit acquisition. This brought to mine our beloved Chicago Sun Times which was acquired by Chicago Public Media (owners of WBEZ) in 2022. Do you think this shift to a nonprofit model is the wave of the future? Can this scheme help daily newspapers survive? Hope so.
ReplyDeleteAs is often the case, very nice piece, Neil.
ReplyDeleteAnd I will echo some thoughts posted yesterday, extremism in any religion is pure evil; Jewish, Christian, Muslim, other.
All that aside, Trump has proven to me the absolute farce that is the republican party, neocons, the religious right, and anyone who sits themselves on the political center and the right of center. From their double standards to their ignorance; from their christian values to their blasphemes ways they are, to a very last one, anti American, anti democracy, and anti religion.
The fact that anyone gives them a platform to spew their hate and lies is beyond me. If you believe in christian hell, there is no way any republican currently in office (and most likely one who's been in office at some point over the last ten years) will fall anywhere other than the deepest darkest pits of that very place.
Josephine Tey, British mystery novelist, echoes your well-reasoned perspective.
ReplyDeleteFrom "The Singing Sands"
"When you say vanity, you are thinking of the kind that admires itself in mirrors and buys things to deck itself out in.
But that is merely personal conceit.
Real vanity is something quite different. A matter not of person but of personality. Vanity says, 'I must have this because I am me.' It is a frightening thing because it is incurable.
You can never convince Vanity that anyone else is of the slightest importance; he just doesn't understand what you are talking about."
Regarding that ridiculous Trump-as-Jesus AI image portraying Trump healing either Jeffrey Epstein or Jon Stewart (depending on whose opinion you're reading), and besides the odd airborne figure in the background that transformed from a soldier in the original rendering into a horned monster in Trump's version, it's worth noting that the original image, credited to one Nick Adams in some articles I've found, has been significantly cropped down from its original landscape orientation, presumably for a better fit on smartphone screens.
ReplyDeleteIn the original wide version (which CNN.com showed in one of its original articles, but which I'm having trouble finding now), those disembodied hands at the lower left and right corners of the posted image belong to full figures. That hand at lower left belongs to an older man in military fatigues if I remember right, perhaps an old army buddy of the patient. I remember less about the cropped-out figure at lower right, possibly intended to be a family member.
The portrait orientation (now featuring some devil emissary hovering in the background) leaves out a whole 'nother rank of loved ones in the foreground, but perhaps someone at the White House looked at all those people in the original and thought, "No, no one will ever believe THAT."
Alice Roosevelt was famously quoted as saying of her father, Theodore, that he “wanted to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding, and the baby at every christening “. I think we can say that Trump had taken this attention seeking trait to a whole new level.
ReplyDeleteLately I have been doing a real good job of not paying it any attention to Media social or otherwise.
ReplyDeleteI circle back to my favorite blogger and I see this and think to myself for a second no f****** way but then I think for a few more seconds and I go of course of course..
I kind of want to say thanks for bringing this to my attention but actually this kind of crap is the reason that I avoid information.
The war was really getting to me I couldn't take it so I was playing chess online and poker and doing crossword puzzles in between going for long walks I was feeling pretty good.
Actually this doesn't make me feel anything one way or the other it's like the man suffering from schizophrenia at the corner by the grocery store I don't go over and talk to him I did once and I was like oh my God stay away from that.
But it's like they made him leader of the Free world
I am so grateful that the NY Times recognizes that we just might have a problem in the White House. Even in this unholy era, miracles can still occur.
ReplyDeleteYou're not hard enough on his eminence, Pope Leo. He is so out of his mind, so narcissistic. that he is a danger to America and the World. Surprised, Neil, that I would say this? I didn't vote for that lunatic.
ReplyDeleteNeil, did I say that you weren't hard enough on Pope Leo? I meant that you were not hard enough on his eminence, Pope Trump.
ReplyDeleteThanks for clarifying.
DeleteYes everything is about him. And I don’t mean it rhetorically, absolutely everything he says or does, every decision he makes is about him. If it’s not clear initially how it’s about him, did deeper. It’s frustrating still after all these years to read articles listen to podcasts etc as the pundits including anti trumpers try to discern why trump is doing something or what he believes in or what his strategy is. He has no beliefs beyond himself. His only strategy is what will this do for me.
ReplyDeleteTrump's so-far-unfulfilled bucket list:
ReplyDelete- Lower prices
- Conquer another country
- Get Nobel Peace Prize
- Get elected Pope
- Be acclaimed the Messiah
- ... ...
Off topic but it's about time:
ReplyDeleteOn Tuesday —161 years after the conclusion of the American Civil War — the state of Virginia ended long-standing tax exemptions for a range of organizations linked to the Confederacy. Signed by Democrat Gov. Abigail Spanberger and passed by the Democrat-controlled state legislature, the bill ending financial benefits represented a victory in the hard-fought effort for the state to rid itself of its legacy as the Confederate capital.
Felonious hates Pope Leo because he hates anyone who's more popular and more well-liked than he is. And Leo is a Chicago guy, so he hates him even more.
ReplyDeleteFelonious has no love for Chicago, ever since he was run out of town in 2016, after the riot at the U. of I. Hence the constant denigrating of Chicago as a shithole city and threats of "occupation." As expected, he wussed out.
Stalin allegedly dismissed the papacy by cynically asking: "How many divisions does the Pope have?" But I still wouldn't mess with a Chicago boy like Leo.
Leo of Dolton, Trump of NyC, and Neil of Ohio, all very cocksure as national debt and inflation rise quickly.
ReplyDeleteIf the USofA is still here in 10 years, I'm moving to digital nomadhood.
Trump's psychological makeup is truly a marvel to behold, but in a horrifying way. he possesses personality traits and behaviors that can be compared to historical figures, but his pathology feels more extensive, pervasive and 'over the top' in every way. He is sick with self aggrandizement, as was Nero, but we are watching in real-time as he now crosses into delusional, messianic territory. He came into the presidency with dangerous personality traits, and the unchecked power has clearly warped him into something frightening.
ReplyDeleteThere is an ethical guideline that psychiatrists have agreed to.... the Goldwater Rule... wherein they refrain from using their expertise to diagnose political figures whom they have not personally evaluated. (1000+ psychiatrists spoke out against the 'fitness' of Goldwater as presidential material back in the 1960s, and this rule eventually followed). Some psychiatrists have spoken out about Trump anyway, but not in a unified way. I wish they would. There is ample material to work with in the public domain.
Some defenders of Trump claim his madman personna is part of his 3-D Chess strategy, which most of us can't appreciate because we lack his genius. The more likely reason that Trump behaves like a madman is because that's what he is.
"He suffers from a grandiosity so bottomless that being immensely rich, the president of the United States, adored by millions, the golden spoon stirring the world pot for the last decade, are not enough."
ReplyDelete