How to explain the devotion Donald Trump’s MAGA followers have for him? Sociologists have suggested he tells them they’re powerless in the face of a large, amorphous, governmental bureaucracy out to grind them into tiny bits of nothing. This feeling of powerlessness creates an onrush of anger and frustration, which the atavistic arrogance of Trump hones in on and feeds off. He tells them their world is a dangerous and cruel place in which criminals and migrants aim to destroy America as they have known it, which means destroying them. He, only he, can protect and shield them from this coming annihilation.
His is a powerful cult-like message to people who believe themselves betrayed by their radical, leftist government. It’s a message he hammers throughout his 90-minute rally rantings. He castigates and maligns any and all, of either political party, who dare to even suggest criticism of him.
He never offers any cogent policies to inspire hope. He has none of those. He is the hope, the only hope. The Messiah.
And they believe him.
On 13 July, an obviously deranged young man named Thomas Matthew Crooks fired eight bullets at Donald Trump as he was beginning to speak at one of his rallies, this one in Pennsylvania. One of those bullets grazed Trump on his ear. Another took the life of Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old grandfather and firefighter, who died shielding his wife and two young daughters after hearing the first shot. In the days that followed, Trump’s followers repeatedly said he had been spared by God to continue his work saving America. At the Republican National Convention he was venerated as “touched by God.”
No one could explain why God had not spared Corey Comperatore.
A different time, a different man
On 30 March 1981, President Ronald Reagan — just two months into his first term — was shot and wounded by John Hinckley Jr., who was, insanely, trying to impress the actress Jodi Foster. Ms. Foster was horrified, not impressed.
Reagan was leaving the Washington Hilton after a speaking engagement when Hinckley fired six shots at him. The sixth round ricocheted off the side of the presidential limousine and struck Reagan under his left arm, breaking a rib, puncturing a lung, and causing serious internal bleeding.
Reagan’s Secret Service detail threw him in the back of the limo and sped off to George Washington University Hospital. When he got there he was near death. But ER doctors stabilized him, operated, and removed the bullet that had lodged less than an inch from his heart.
He stayed in the hospital 12 days, and was released to return to the White House on 11 April. That night he wrote in his personal and confidential journal for the first time since being shot by Hinkley, who was later found not guilty by reason of insanity. He wrote about the day of the shooting and the days of recovery after. This is what he wrote:
Monday, March 30, 1981
My day to address the Building & Construction Trades Natl. Conference AFL-CIO at the Hilton Ballroom — 2pm. Was all dressed to go & for some reason at the last minute took off my really good wrist watch & wore an older one.
Speech not riotously received — still it was successful.
Left the hotel at the usual side entrance and headed for the car — suddenly there was a burst of gun fire from the left. Secret Service agent pushed me onto the floor of the car & jumped on top. I felt a blow in my upper back that was unbelievably painful. I was sure he’d broken my rib. The car took off. I sat up on the edge of the seat almost paralyzed by pain. Then I began coughing up blood which made both of us think — yes, I had a broken rib & it had punctured a lung. He switched orders from White House to George Washington U. Hospital.
By the time we arrived I was having great trouble getting enough air. We did not know that Tim McCarthy (Secret Service) had been shot in the chest, Jim Brady in the head & a policeman, Tom Delahanty, in the neck.
I walked into the emergency room and was hoisted onto a cart where I was stripped of my clothes. It was then we learned I’d been shot & had a bullet in my lung.
Getting shot hurts. Still my fear was growing because no matter how hard I tried to breathe it seemed I was getting less & less air. I focused on that tiled ceiling and prayed. But I realized I couldn’t ask for God’s help while at the same time I felt hatred for the mixed-up young man who had shot me. Isn’t that the meaning of the lost sheep? We are all God’s children & therefore equally beloved by him. I began to pray for his soul and that he would find his way back to the fold.
I opened my eyes once to find Nancy there. I pray I’ll never face a day when she isn’t there. Of all the ways God has blessed me giving her to me is the greatest and beyond anything I can ever hope to deserve.
All the kids arrived and the hours ran together in a blur during which I was operated on. I know it’s going to be a long recovery but there has been such an outpouring of love from all over.
The days of therapy, transfusion, intravenous, etc. have gone by — now it is Sat. April 11 and this morning I left the hospital and am here at the White House with Nancy & Patti. The treatment, the warmth, the skill of those at G.W. has been magnificent but it’s great to be here at home.
Whatever happens now I owe my life to God and will try to serve him in every way I can.
Lying on a gurney with a bullet through his lung and near his heart, fearing he might die that day, perhaps in the next moment, Ronald Reagan prays for the soul of John Hinkley, a mixed up kid with a Röhm RG-14 double action trying to impress a movie star. Then he vows to serve his God “in every way I can.”
I agreed with Ronald Reagan’s policies perhaps 10% of the time, maybe less. You remember trickle down economics, don’t you? Didn’t work out then, and it hasn’t since, but it’s still the Republican Party’s Yellow Brick Road.
Nonetheless, Reagan the man, the person, seems to have been a decent, compassionate, good human being who bore hatred for no one, even the young man who tried to kill him and nearly did.
I wonder if Donald Trump keeps a personal, confidential journal, and, if so, what’s in it?
