TJ Walker argues that Trump's image of himself as Jesus signals a breakdown of political norms, with daily outrages becoming the new baseline. Trump is now attacking his own base and the Pope, contracting rather than expanding power. Walker warns this threatens the global economy and democratic institutions, and predicts Trump's self-destruction will erode his support enough for Democrats to restore order in 2026.
Chapters
Ultimize. Everyone's talking about the latest story involving Donald Trump posting an image of himself as Jesus. Those of you watching with me on social media, you can see the picture right here. And regardless of your take on any religion, it is kind of— I want to take a step back because I think everyone is missing the real story here. The real story is not, oh my gosh, the president did something shocking today. No, the only shocking thing about this administration is when a full day, 24 hours goes by and something shocking doesn't happen. That's what should be the headline. We're all still pretending we live in a semi-normal world where a semi-legitimate president occasionally does something outrageous. That's not where we are anymore. We're in a world where one day it's threats that sound like war crimes or would-be war crimes, genocide. Next day it's attacking Pope Leo. Next day it's, "I'm Jesus now." At this point, forget unhinged. The hinges didn't just fall off. The screws are gone. The door's gone. The entire house has been blown away into another zip code. And somehow people are still standing there going, hmm, well, this seems unusual. Unusual? This is the new baseline? Now here's the part that actually matters. There's one small bright spot in all of this madness. Trump's no longer spending all of his time attacking Democrats, liberals, progressives. Now he's increasingly attacking the Pope. That's right, the Pope. Fellow conservatives, His own allies, his base. This is not random. This is not strategy. This is what implosion looks like. Because when a leader starts turning on everyone, including the people who built his power, that's not expansion. That's contraction. That's collapse. That's the political version of a company where the CEO has fired the board, alienated customers, and is now arguing with the janitor. And here's why everyone, left, right, center, libertarian, conservative, progressive should care. We all have a shared interest in this. Let's call it what it is, this field experiment in chaos imploding as quickly as possible with as little damage to the rest of the world as possible, because the trajectory here is not flat. It's accelerating. It's not just, he says crazy things, but that's the Donald. That the scale and potential consequences of those things keep increasing. Every week feels like a 10x escalation of madness. And at some point you have to ask, do we really just sit back and wait until the next election? Will there even be a stable system left by then? Will there be a functioning global economy in 3 months at this pace? These are not normal questions, but we're not in a normal situation. And this is where the responsibility shifts. Not to Democrats, nobody listens to Democrats, not to the critics or the media, to Republicans. Because at some point, self-interest has to kick in, or it should. Not moral courage, not heroism, but simply self-preservation. Because if you allow this to continue, If you stand next to it, defend it, excuse it, you don't just risk losing an election, you risk being politically radioactive for a generation or more. We've seen this before in history. When systems collapse, the people who enable them don't get a gentle retirement. They get remembered, and not in a good way. Just ask the people who were on the wrong side of history in Europe in 1945. That's not hyperbole. That's what happens when institutions rot and people refuse to act until it's too late. So yes, laugh at the image, make the jokes. Trump is Jesus. There's material there for days. But don't miss the real story. This isn't about one bizarre post. This is about a system spiraling, a leader losing all sense of boundaries, and a coalition that still hasn't decided whether to stop it or go down with it. And here's your personal development takeaway, because there always is one. The moment you stop listening to your audience, the moment you believe your own mythology, the moment you think you're above reality, that's not when you peak. That's when the collapse begins. And right now we are watching that collapse happen in real time. You know, there's Talk that so much of the internet and news is negative, negative, negative. I got to say, I feel really good about this. I feel more optimistic about the future of America than I have in the last year because I just see Trump spiraling out of control. The fact that he's spending all of his time attacking his former allies, he doesn't even have time to go after the deranged, crazy Democrats and the liberals and the AOCs. The seas of the world. At some point, his public support goes down below 30% and gas prices keep going up. And at that point, Republican politicians no longer have to fear his attack because he's not gonna have a base. He's not gonna be able to mobilize an army. The army will be gone. Are they all gonna go right to the Democrats? No. But enough of them sit at home in the 2026 elections, that's all it will take for the Democrats to restore order to a democracy. Ultimátum.
