Divine right of demagogues: Why authoritarians can’t stop playing god

When US President Donald Trump and his White House on Saturday posted an AI-generated image of him seated like a baroque ornament on the throne of St Peter, papal hat, gilded robes, the kind of narcissistic fantasy that would make Mussolini blush, he was not joking. Not really. His followers thought it was funny. It was. In the same way a clown holding a nuclear briefcase is funny: until it is not.

A faction of Republican senators like Lindsey Graham, presumably suffering from long Covid of the conscience, proposed a “conclave” to anoint Trump as the next pope. Graham asked “the papal conclave and Catholic faithful to keep an open mind about this possibility!”

Meanwhile, across the Atlanic Viktor Orbán, a Trump wannabe and ever the aspiring Calvinist strongman, has been turning the Hungarian parliament into a confession box where sins are forgiven as long as you vote Fidesz.

Even in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, confessed to an interviewer some time ago that he does not believe that he could have come from a “biological body”.

And why this attempt by politicians to demonstrate their proximity to the supreme beings?

Because authoritarianism, by design, is never solely about power. It is about pursuit of divinity. It is about manufacturing belief.

Authoritarian leaders do not want to govern the people....

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