PRRI's Robert P. Jones: "Donald Trump sees himself as the king of kings"

[marmar]

PRRI's Robert P. Jones: "Donald Trump sees himself as the king of kings"
"There is virtually nothing Trump can do for the Republican base to not support him"

By Chauncey DeVega
Senior Writer
Published June 3, 2025 6:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) The American people need to give up childish things and do the necessary hard work if they are to have any chance of saving their democracy from Trumpism and the larger right-wing antidemocracy revolutionary project. As James Baldwin counseled in a 1962 essay that appeared in the New York Times Book Review, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

Unfortunately, there are very few indications of such newfound maturity. The American people remain in a deep slumber and state of learned helplessness as Donald Trump and his forces continue with the shock and awe campaign against American democracy, civil society, the rule of law, the Constitution and human decency. The mainstream news media as an institution appears to have chosen a strategy of anticipatory obedience and compliance, if not collaboration, in normalizing Trumpism and his attempts to become the country’s first elected dictator. The Democratic Party is mired in infighting and a perpetual post-mortem about how and why it was routed by Donald Trump and his MAGA Republicans in the 2024 election. The concept of how to be an effective opposition party seems outside the grasp of its leaders.

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After more than 10 years of the Age of Trump and all the horrible things it has spawned and encouraged, public opinion polls show that there are still many tens of millions of Americans who will not abandon Donald Trump under any circumstances. Moreover, by some metrics, Donald Trump has actually expanded his base of support among the most disgruntled and alienated members of the American public.

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Robert P. Jones is the president and founder of Public Religion Research Institute. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller "The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future," as well as "White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity."

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As part of its national whitewashing and Orwellian memory hole "patriotic education" program, the Trump administration is censoring books, targeting universities and colleges, and the American educational system more broadly, and even attacking museums and libraries. Your book was banned at the US Naval Academy. How does it feel to have such an "honor" and "distinction?"

The Nazis burned books to destroy knowledge. It was an analog world then. Now we are in a digital world, and the Trump administration can destroy and suppress knowledge and the truth with the push of a button. In addition to so much digital destruction, which materially would be the biggest book burning in history, the Trump administration is resorting to old-fashioned book bans. My book, White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity, was one of 381 books, including seven books on Christianity, banned from the US Naval Academy. Guess what? Quite predictably, all those books were about Christianity's complicity with racism and white supremacy. But Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" was not banned. Apparently, books about Christianity's complicity with racism and white supremacy are too dangerous for midshipmen to read, but "Mein Kampf" is not. ...............................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/06/03/prris-robert-p-jones-donald-sees-himself-as-the-king-of-kings/

[ariadne0614]

1. Lord of lords is sure to follow posthaste. n/t